Seven Fish Dishes #4: Baked Trout with Herb Stuffing

Hopefully you're enjoying the slow parade of fish dishes for the Seven Fish Dish dinner...and thinking of starting your own celebration, as well!

Today's rendition focuses on one of the Rocky Mountain's tastiest pescatorial foods: firm, fresh trout. They're found in our streams and reservoirs -- and they're good.

This version stretches out with crunchy herb stuffing, that contributes to the trout's good flavor. Alice Koklas, Gertrude Stein's partner, baked her trout wrapped in crepes, and called it "Trout in Sweaters." Does that make this dish "Stuff It Trout?" Who cares -- it's delicious, by any name.

This photo from troutrecipes.org - and many more great dishes! Click here for more.

BAKED TROUT WITH HERB STUFFING

3 trout, approx. 1 pound each, heads on
   (normally, you'd figure a half-pound or full pound trout per person. But since we've had 3 fish dishes already, with 3 more to go after this, eight or nine people will divide this amount nicely)

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup fresh herbs -- rosemary, sage, marjoram OR
    1 tablespoon each of these herbs, dried
1 cup chicken broth (or one chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1 cup hot water)
3 cups bread crumbs (day-old bread, left out a bit so it crumbles easily)
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. (Yes, you can cook this dish at the same time as yesterday's Teriyaki Salmon.) 
   Wash the trout inside and out, and lay in an ovenproof serving dish
    Melt the butter in a frying pan; set aside a tablespoon or so for basting the fish later. Saute the vegetables and herbs a few minutes (but still crunchy) -- stir in broth, breadcrumbs and salt until the crumbs are absorbed, and everything is mixed well. (Add a little more water, if needed - mixture should be moist, but not soggy.)
    Carefully push stuffing inside the fish, then arrange the remaining stuffing around them. Drizzle the reserved butter over the fish, then sprinkle with lemon juice and a little extra chopped herbs.

Bake approx. 30 min., until the fish is white and flakes easily. Don't overbake -- just cover, and set at the back of the stove to keep warm until ready to serve.

Tomorrow:  Shrimp Scampi