Before today, I had never cut up a whole fish. Wait, what am I talking about? I STILL haven’t cut up a whole fish.
I asked Tre if she wanted to take photos or cut up the fish since I certainly wasn’t going to do both. Fish on camera doesn’t taste good. So Tre chose the fish, the camera felt unappreciated and I tried to make up for it by snapping my feet.
When I uploaded the photos, there they were. I figured you’ve seen my head, you’ve seen my hands and now my feet. And before you think, “Ew, gross,” I’ve got a lot more gross things going on in these photos than just my feet.
All the times I’ve bought fish, it never included eyeballs, teeth, tails or scales… okay, maybe scales but I’m in denial about that. So today was disgustingly exhilarating. And just to be clear, this recipe can totally be done with just two filets and not the whole fish BUT, the least amount of processing/handling is always the safest and healthiest.
Fish is an excellent source of many vitamins and nutrients and was in almost every primitive diet of the 1930’s, including the Gaelics. So I was determined.
First, I watched a bunch of videos on how to gut, debone and clean fish. The best one I found for deboning was Ask the Chef. The only part he doesn’t include is the cleaning of the blood on the spine. Don’t fret! I made sure to include this step in the photos below. See, I’m always thinking of you.
This recipe didn’t mention deboning but I’m including it. I’ll admit it, throughout this process I kept thinking, “I am totally just buying the filets next time,” but by the time we finished, Tre and I both agreed we were looking forward to trying our hand at cutting and cleaning a whole fish again. We learned quite a bit. Our mistakes: We cut too much into the meat, we forgot to remove the pin bones and could have just pulled the spine blood out with our hands rather than struggling with a knife.
And who would have thought just last week that spine blood and I would be sharing a sentence?
The outcome? The cream sauce was absolutely delicious and could easily be used for any fish recipe. As for the trout, it had a taste that was a cross between chicken and tuna. Pretty good but not my favorite. So next time I plan on getting salmon and using this exact same recipe.
If you try it, let me know what you think!
7-8 lbs. whole fresh water lake trout, gutted
olive oil for drizzling
2 tbsp fresh parsley minced
3 fresh bay leaves
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 large leek
2 lemons
3 tbsp raw butter
1 cup raw cream
3 tbsp fresh tarragon
IF WHOLE FISH (complete 2 & 3 and then go to 5)
Cut off head, tail and fins and remove blood at the spine.
optional: remove the bones
IF PRE-CUT FILETS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line casserole dish with aluminum foil and drizzle with oil.
Place fish in dish and sprinkle with parsley, salt, pepper and bay leaves.
Take one half of fish and place on top of other, skins facing out.
Thinly slice 1 lemon, chop up leek and cut up butter into chunks.
Dress top of fish with lemon, leek and butter.
Cover and seal with a top layer of foil and cook for 75 minutes.
Remove dish from oven and pour excess juice from foil to sauce pan.
Add cream and tarragon to sauce pan and simmer for 15 minutes.
Discard leek and lemon, peel off skin from fish and pour on cream sauce.
