I’ve recently started to look into how to introduce more fish to our weekly food menu because I wanted to make sure we eat more healthily.
Every week I pick a different type of fish and try to prepare it using recipes from around the world. But sometimes, the recipe doesn’t need a lot of ingredients as the fish itself is full of flavour. All you need to do is to add a few simple herbs and spices, and you can produce something truly exceptional!
This week I’ve decided to buy a trout and pan-fry it with spring onions and butter. I served it with mashed potatoes and spinach, which made it into a really posh dinner indeed! Another benefit of having a fish dish is that the preparation is quite easy, and the whole dinner is made in under 30 minutes.
These days you can buy trout in your fish market or even online from a local fish farm. This way, you know that your fish hasn’t travelled half the world to get to you and that it had the best life it could before it got to your plate!
To prepare your trout you need to first cut off the trout’s head and tail. If you are a bit squeamish, you can always ask the fishmonger to do this for you. Sometimes, especially if I have a smaller trout, I’ll leave the tail on and use it to turn my fish around when I’m panfrying it.
Next you need to remove the guts from the trout by carefully cutting the fish sideways, opening the fish and taking away all the insides. After that rinse the trout in running water and make sure there is no blood left inside, as it can spoil the flavour of the dish. Depending on how you like your trout, you can fillet the fish or not. I leave the skin on for this recipe because it seems to protect the meat inside (and I’m less likely to burn it!).
I don’t eat the skin, so I don’t worry too much about removing all the fish scales before I cook the trout. If you like the crunchiness of the trout skin and want to eat it, make sure that you remove all the fish scales and clean your trout properly.
After that, you are ready to pan-fry your trout, which takes no more than a couple of minutes on each side (depending on the size of your trout). I usually put the potatoes on and have any side vegetables ready before I start on the fish because it’s so quick and you want to serve the trout the minute it’s ready.
For this easy trout recipe, I’ve used garlic-infused oil (as I need to be a little bit careful about using garlic in my food), but you can easily use regular vegetable or olive oil and then add garlic separately. If you want a very mild taste, you can use just lemon or lemongrass spices with white pepper and butter. Either way, you can’t go wrong with this recipe and every time you can try a different variation of this simple dish.
I hope this trout recipe inspires you to introduce a fish dinner to your weekly menu and explore your local fish market at the same time.
Until the next time – happy cooking!
Magdalena
Easy Pan-Fried Trout Fillets
Quick weekday dinner recipe that's delicious & healthy!
- 2 trout fillets (1 smaller trout per person or a large one between two people)
- 1 tbsp garlic infused oil (or any type of cooking oil)
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2-3 small spring onions, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Heat your pan to medium heat
Melt the butter with oil and add the trout fillets skin side down first.
After about two minutes carefully turn and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Add the spring onions, parsley and lemon juice and leave it to cook through for another couple of minutes, until the trout is lightly brown.
To check that your fish is done, test it with a fork. If the trout flesh flakes off easily, the fish is cooked properly.
Serve straight from the pan with mashed potatoes mixed with spinach (or baby potatoes and asparagus)