Pan-Fried Trout with Bacon; Lyonnaise Potatoes

Jon loves seafood and I really want to like it, so on Sunday I picked up trout at the market.

As I've mentioned before, I don't like the overall seafood flavor that seems to be in every salt water fish I have tried. I don't mind catfish (farm raised), so I thought I'd try trout, another fresh water fish.

I found a recipe for Pan-Fried Trout with Bacon on my favorite web site for recipes - Epicurious. I made a few small changes noted below.

Ingredients

• 4 bacon slices
• 5 tablespoons butter (I used less butter and added some olive oil)
• 2 8- to 10-ounce trout, boned
• All purpose flour
• 1 cup thinly sliced green onions (I didn't have any so I used finely minced white onion)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 teaspoons drained capers (didn't use these)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon (used parsley after discovering we both don't like tarragon!)
• Added: 1/3 c chicken broth

Directions

• Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Crumble bacon.
• Pour off all but 3 tablespoons drippings from skillet. (I had less than this so didn't need to pour any off)
• Add 1 tablespoon butter and stir to melt.
• Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Coat flesh side of fish with flour; shake off excess.
• Add fish, flesh side down, to skillet. Cook 2 minutes. Turn fish over. Cook until just opaque in center, about 2 minutes. Transfer fish to 2 plates.
• Pour off drippings from skillet; wipe skillet clean. (my skillet was such a mess so I just used a clean one for the next step)
• Melt 4 tablespoons butter in same skillet over medium heat. (I used 1-2 tbsp butter and a bit of olive oil)
• Add all but 2 tablespoons onions; sauté 3 minutes. (I did all of the onions)
• Stir in bacon, lemon juice, capers, and tarragon. (I didn't use capers or tarragon; I added chicken broth at this step and a bit of the parsley; let simmer for a few minutes)
• Season sauce with salt and pepper.
• Pour sauce over fish.
• Sprinkle fish with 2 tablespoons green onions. (I didn't want raw onions on the fish, so I topped it with the sauce and finished it with a sprinkling of fresh parsley).

This sauce was very good on the fish. I was hesitant about the bacon with the fish, but it worked. And I am so, so glad we both tasted the tarragon before I started cooking. It tasted like anise, a flavor we both don't care for at all. My only complaint was that the market didn't do a very good job of cleaning the fish. Trout is a very bony fish to begin with, but we shouldn't have had to pick out this many bones. I'd make this dish again, but maybe with something like flounder.

Fish needs light sides, in my opinion, so I decided on this recipe for Lyonnaise Potatoes, and also made Sauteed Spinach. Potatoes are normally a heavy dish, but I sliced them very thin and ended up with a perfect, light potato casserole. And I added my favorite secret ingredient...truffle oil. White this time.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and sliced (I used 4 Yukon Gold Potatoes and used my mandolin to thinly slice them)
• 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• I added about 1 tbsp white truffle oil
• I also added freshly chopped parsley

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Lightly coat a small baking pan with olive oil.
• Layer potatoes and onion in pan. Season with salt and pepper. I then poured some white truffle oil over the top.
• Pour stock over potatoes and onion
• Cover and bake 30 minutes.
• Lightly spray or brush with olive oil and return to oven, uncovered, 10 more minutes to lightly brown potatoes. I simply broiled them for the last 5 minutes instead of adding more oil - worked perfectly.
• Once done, I sprinkled them with some fresh parsley.

I love how light these potatoes tasted!! Thinly slicing them worked perfectly for this dish. The addition of the white truffle oil was a good call - how can you go wrong with the flavor of truffles? It was also very easy and is something I will make again.

My sauteed spinach is pretty standard - olive oil, spinach, and some kosher salt over medium high heat for about 2 minutes.

Have a delicious week everyone!