Recipe: Trout with Almonds and Garlic Butter

Trout with Almonds and Garlic Butter
rec.food.cooking/Diane M. Ferrell/1996

My brother brought home a very large 20" trout and this is how I cooked it with the almonds. We all loved it. Just a note--trout should be gutted when it is caught for the freshest taste, then eaten the same day. If you can't eat the trout right away, freeze it in ice blocks the same day.

1 stick butter
2 lemons
3 cloved garlic
1 cup slivered almonds

Fresh basil, several leaves
1 large red onion
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Soak the trout in salted cold water for about 1/2 hour. Clean the interior well and scrape the scales. Rinse well. Salt and pepper the cavity and stuff with the basil leaves. Use about 7-8 large leaves. Thinly slice the onion and stuff into the cavity.

Place the fish in a large baking dish. Cut one of the lemons in half and squeeze the juice over the fish. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees. (Since I very rarely time anything I can only guess at the time it takes to cook this large trout--I would say about 1/2 hour, but I'm not sure).

While the trout is baking, place the softened butter in the blender along with the garlic and the juice from the other half of the cut lemon. Puree until all is mixed well. This can be done several hours ahead of time and refrigerated. Place about half of the garlic butter in a heavy skillet and heat to sizzling. Add the almonds and lightly toast. Taste for flavor. Add the remaining garlic butter if you want, or melt it for dipping when you eat the trout.

10 minutes before the trout should be done, remove it from the oven and gently open the cavity and sprinkle a few of the almonds inside. Cover the trout with the remaining almonds. Do not recover and return the trout to the oven to continue cooking. Slice the remaining lemon into thin slices for garnish.

To Serve: Gently place the cooked trout on a large platter. Garnish with Italian flat leaf parsley and thin slices of lemon. You can also drizzle some of the remaining garlic butter over all. Very good.

I used the entire stick of garlic butter to toast the almonds because we really like the flavor of garlic, but it can be overpowering.