Somewhere over the rainbow (trout)

In preparation for Friday night Lenten dinners, I've been spending a lot of time at the fish counter lately. Typically I go for salmon or tilapia (and lately I've been picking up the scallops a bit more). But lately, all of the salmon available in my grocery store is farm raised, has dye added, or is extremely expensive. For this reason, I decided to try to prepare trout this week.

The two rainbow trout fillets were much less expensive than salmon, and seemed to have more color than even the "dye added" cuts I was looking at. The only problem was, I've never prepared trout before! It was surprisingly easy. On the side, I had a "what is in my fridge that I need to use up" party.

Rainbow trout: serves 4 (or two with leftovers)
2 1/2 pound trout fillets
zest and juice of one lemon
1TBSP butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup (or so?I don't know, I didn't measure) roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Pat fillets dry with a paper towel. Salt and pepper to taste and put on a baking sheet. I sprayed the sheet AND the fillets with olive oil (I find that spraying allows for a more even coat, no excess oil, and fewer calories!) Bake fillets for 10-15 minutes depending on thickness.

Meanwhile, in a small saute pan, melt the butter, and toss in the pecans to toast lightly. Nuts are very easy to burn, so keep the heat on medium, stir often, and use your nose to smell when they are done! When they are fragrant, turn heat on very low (or just turn it off) and add in lemon juice (I found the sauce wasn't bright enough so I added in the zest too-- I would typically recommend zesting the lemon BEFORE you cut and juice it, but it happened in the reverse order here). When the fish comes out of the oven, spoon the sauce over and sprinkle with parsely.

The fish was good, but next time I will try trout without butter on top. It is rich and delicious enough as it is! But, it is definitely a fish I am happy to add to my repertoire. 

My side dishes:
1. White shoepeg corn.
This was gross. I will never buy it again. Frozen corn is the only thing that gets this Iowa girl through winter and spring in anticipation of fresh, delicious sweet corn, but I will NEVER get anything with "white" or "shoepeg" in the name again. It wasn't sweet, it was chewy, and it looked yucky on the plate.
2. Buttermilk mashed potatoes.
I had three russet potatoes and a few cups of buttermilk leftover from St. Paddy's day so I decided to use them up. I peeled and diced up the taters and got them in a pot of water on the stove. I added salt to the water once it was boiling. Once soft, I drained them, and threw them back in the pan with a TBSP of butter (actually it might have been butter substitute) one clove of minced garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, and buttermilk. I started with about a quarter cup, wanting to make sure I had the right ratio. So, as I mashed, I added more until it was a consistency I wanted.
I thought the potatoes were good-- the tang was a nice contrast to the rich fish. Tim was less impressed. He ate them, but he had a very confused expression on his face the entire time. The tang definitely threw him for a loop.

Overall, a decent dinner!