Foil-baked Sea Trout with Salsa Verde (Green Sauce)
May is the time to start looking out for fresh sea trout. If your fishmonger doesn’t seem to be stocking it as a matter of course, then ask him to order you one (or two, or three – I particularly like the smaller fish of under or around a kilo).
This is also a recipe to cook with any trout you might catch – the season really gets under way this month. The eating quality of the fish, though, varies so much. I simply can’t bear to fish in stocked lakes, where the rainbows come out tasting muddy.
Salsa verde is one of the most useful and versatile sauces I know – it works for fish, meat and poultry, hot and cold. Ingredients are variable, as are the quantities, but the basic idea is to make a mildly piquant sauce in which the explosive aromas of (ideally) just-picked herbs come shining through. Parsley is pretty much essential – indeed, you can make a good version using parsley alone. Add other herbs according to your own taste and what comes to hand: basil and tarragon are favourites of mine but chives, marjoram, chervil and oregano can all be used. I tend to avoid sage, coriander and rosemary as they overpower the other ingredients.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
butter
4–5 bay leaves
a few sprigs of thyme
a fistful of chives
1 onion, finely sliced
1 large sea trout or 4 small ones
a good slosh (about 100ml) of white wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the salsa verde:
1 small garlic clove
a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, trimmed of coarse stalks
about 15–20 basil leaves
leaves from 3–4 sprigs of tarragon
2–3 anchovy fillets
about 1 teaspoon capers
about 1 teaspoon mustard (Dijon or English)
a pinch of sugar
a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar
1–2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
First make the salsa verde. Finely chop the garlic on a large chopping board. Then add the herbs, anchovies and capers and chop all together until the ingredients are well mixed and fairly fine in texture. Transfer to a bowl and mix in a little mustard, sugar, lemon juice or vinegar, black pepper and enough olive oil to give a glossy, spoonable consistency. As you add these last ingredients, taste and tweak the mixture till you get something you really like. This sauce is best made immediately before serving but it will keep for a few days, covered, in the fridge.
Tear off 2 sheets of foil a little bit longer than your fish and lay one on top of the other. Smear the dull side of the upper sheet generously with soft butter. Scatter some of the bay leaves, thyme, chives and onion over the buttered foil and lay a cleaned, gutted sea trout on top. Smear a bit more butter on the fish and lay a few more of the herbs on it. Push a bay leaf, a couple of slices of onion and a knob of butter into the belly of the fish. Season well with salt and pepper. Lift up and lightly scrunch the sides and ends of the foil, so you can pour the white wine into the parcel without it leaking out.
Lay the foil parcel(s) on a baking tray and seal the foil, scrunching the 2 sides together like a Cornish pasty. Place in a hot oven (220°C/Gas Mark 7) for from 20 minutes (for a 500g fish) to 45 minutes (for a 2-kilo fish).
Remove the fish from the oven and open the foil. Check it is cooked through by slipping a knife into the lateral line at the thickest part. If the flesh is still a little translucent and sticking to the bone, then wrap the foil back around it and leave to rest for a few minutes to complete the transfer of heat. (Of course, if it looks alarmingly raw, then put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.)
Remove the skin of the fish and lift the fillets away from the backbone. Lay these on a warmed plate and spoon over some of the cooking juices from the foil. Serve with salsa verde on the side and some plain boiled new potatoes.