This recipe, inspired by a traditional Malaysian cooking technique, opens up a whole new world since it completely simplifies the sometimes hazardous process of steaming fish.
You will need two chunky trout fillets (large trout fillets are increasingly available on wet counters in fishmongers and supermarkets), fresh coriander, limes, chilli flakes and desiccated (unsweetened) coconut and a steamer.
A word on steaming
I love steaming. It avoids boiling all the goodness out of your food, retains moisture and, especially if you are lucky enough have one of those versatile metal flower steamers that you can use in all metal bottomed saucepans, is easy and clutter free. As such I steam all my vegetables (with the exception of potatoes) and aspire to steam as much fish as possible but usually run into problems either with the fish meat falling apart (in the case of fillets) or the fish kettle being cumbersome to handle (in the case of whole fish).
So imagine my excitement and delight to discover a new way to steam fish without any of these problems, namely wrapping your flavoured fillet in a parcel of baking paper and popping it into your regular flower or saucepan steamer. Straightforwardly simple and perfect. You can expect many more trout blog recipes to use this technique.
Back to the actual recipe which as you by now may be guessing is really just a trout fillet parcel packed with a coriander lime and coconut filling.
First make your filling by mixing together a generous handful of chopped fresh coriander, plenty of fresh lime rind (I used 2 limes for each parcel) and a couple of pinches of desiccated (unsweetened) coconut.
Then make a sauce by adding the juice from the de-rinded (if such a word exists) limes to a tea spoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and a pinch of dried chilli flakes.
Next take a square piece of baking powder (large enough to wrap and seal around both fillets together) and place one of your rainbow trout fillets skin down in the middle. Add all of the filling and drizzle approximately half of your sauce over the top of the filling. Take your second fillet and place skin up on top of the filling, effectively making a trout sandwich.
Brush both fillet skins with the remainder of your sauce and fold the parcel up taking care to seal the edges.
Place the folded up trout parcel in your steamer and steam for 10 minutes before serving on a bed of whatever you feel like; I chose salad to help combat Christmas excess but under usual circumstances I might be tempted by rice noodles and spring onions.
The result is an original, delicate and healthy delight, though I do confess that at the last minute I added some sweet chilli sauce to help make my rocket and water cress bed a bit more interesting. There is only so much purity one can take.
Depending upon your preference you can serve with the skin on or skin off. I think leaving the colourful and glossy skin on produces a stronger visual impact and since the skin peels away so easily it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of eating.
Christmas Gadgets
Thank you to my family for indulging my gadget obsession. Starting from left to right we have the super-retro-juicer for when you know you are doing significant quantities (next weeks upload will present juicer junior which is useful for smaller quantities), then the established but under-appreciated de-rinder and finally, brand new to my kitchen this Christmas, the cinco-scissor wonder.
So if you are ever sceptical of my prep time estimates then perhaps now you will realise how spoilt I am and what a difference they make.
Tags: steamed fresh trout