Bacon Stuffed Trout

When I think of trout, I think of fishing trips at Lake Bridgeport with my dad and grandpa. There’s actually a lot you can do with trout. It’s a tasty and versatile fish which I think is highly under-rated. This dish is a delight treat! Steve, my guinea pig, licked his dish clean.

Ingredients

• 2 cleaned and butterflied trout
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 stalk celery
• 4 medium crimini or white mushrooms
• 2 strips thick-cut bacon
• 2 tbsp corn meal
• 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp fresh oregano
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary
• salt
• pepper

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 400℉.

In a skillet, sweat the onion and celery with a little salt and olive oil. Add-in bacon, chopped mushrooms, and finely chopped rosemary and oregano. Sauteé the mixture. Remove from skillet by spooning into a bowl. Salt and pepper to taste.

Sprinkle corn meal on a plate and dredge the trout, skin-side, through the corn meal.

Add whatever corn meal is left into the sauteéd mixture and stir it up.

Open the trout and lay it in your skillet (heat off). Squeeze the lemon evenly over both sides of the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Scoop the veggie/bacon mixture onto one side of the trout. Fold the other side over it to close it up.

Stick the skillet into the oven and bake at 400℉ for about 15 minutes.

Prep time: 15-20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Serves: 2

Tilapia as a Great Seafood Option

With salmon being virtually unavailable this year, and the list of over-farmed seafood growing, I feel like the fish choices keep getting slimmer all the time. Luckily, tilapia is still a great choice*.

I really like this fish. It’s available at any decent fish market or Asian grocery store, usually live or very fresh. It’s also much less expensive than other seafood choices, usually about $3/lb. And unless gutting fish is your thing, ask the guy at the meat counter to clean it for you before you bring it home.

Here’s one of my favorite ways to prepare tilapia. Herb Stuffed Tilapia makes a great summer main dish that’s low fat and full of delicious flavor.

For more tilapia recipes, Tessa Evans has a blog devoted to them. You can also find a list of tilapia recipes presented by the American Tilapia Association.

Herb Stuffed Tilapia

Prep time: about 20 min. Cook time: about 30 min. Skill Level: medium to easy.

1 large whole tilapia, cleaned
1 lemon sliced into thin wedges
1 lemon sliced into rounds
2 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
3 or 4 green onions, sliced vertically
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 stick butter
1 cup white wine
1 tbsp peppercorns
salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix dill, thyme, rosemary, chopped onion and garlic. Place fish into 9″x13″ baking pan. If the tail sticks out, just trim it with a pair of scissors. Next, lay 4 or 5 slices of butter into the body cavity of the fish, spread out. Stuff the fish with most of the herbs mixture leaving out about 1/4 cup. Pour 3/4 cup of wine into the fish. Now seal the opening off with the lemon wedges (see picture). Pour the remaining wine over the top of the fish and salt. Sprinkle the rest of the herb mixture over the top. Lay the sliced lemons over the top. Arrange the other onions on the bottom of the pan.

Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until fish is done and tender. It should just fall apart with a fork.

* Just be sure that you’re getting tilapia farmed in the US or Central America as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch warns against the fish if it’s farmed in China.

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