Stuffed Trout

Whole trout was on sale last week, and so I made this tasty dish. My boyfriend loved the rice stuffing.

Stuffed Trout

Ingredients:

2 whole trout prepared for cooking (scales off, insides out)
1 lemon
1/2 c chopped herbs (I used a mix of parsley, dill and tarragon)
olive oil (enough to drizzle)
1 T butter unsalted
6 medium white mushrooms
2 c cooked white rice
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. On the stovetop, prepare the stuffing. Melt the butter in a pan, and when it is melted add the onion, chopped. Sautee until it's soft, then add diced garlic and chopped mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and sautee gently; there's nothing worse than burnt garlic. While the veggies cook, place the fish in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the inside and outside of the fish. When the mushrooms are soft, add the rice and 3/4 of the herbs to your pan of stuffing. Mix thoroughly, the herbs will start to wilt. Remove from the heat. Fill the fish with the rice stuffing and lemon slices (about 4 slices each fish). You can put extra stuffing in the baking dish surrounding the fish, or you can just save it to serve at a different meal. Drizzle olive oil over the fish and rice, sprinkle the remaining herbs over the fish and top each one with two more lemon slices. Put the pan in the oven on a middle rack. The time will depend on how big/small your fish are. Mine took about 18 minutes (I was cooking 4, I don't know if that affects the time). The best strategy is to check frequently; take it out when it looks not very done and then let it rest for five minutes. I said there's nothing worse than burnt garlic, but I think that's not really true: there's nothing worse than dry, overcooked fish.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: I didn't think I could eat one whole fish by myself, but I was wrong! Trout aren't very big, so I would assume 1 per person. There's about 1/2 c of stuffing in each one. I think that 1 stuffed trout is a pretty complete meal. The extra stuffing in the pan gets all the juices from the fish, the oil, and the lemon, so it's really tasty. This meal was also fast; the fish took about 20 minutes to cook including some rest time, and the stuffing didn't take even 10 minutes.