Roasted Trout

You know a meal's good when... you eat right off the tray it's roasted on.

Last weekend we popped down to the farmer's market and, unsure of what to do for dinner and possibly desiring fish, found ourselves at Kerrytown's own Monahan's Seafood. The counter was filled with everything from prawns and clams to lobster and squid. A short perusal and, the next thing you know, we were on our way home with a big, 2.5 pound whole wild-caught trout poking out of our bag.

We were brainstorming ways to cook up our 'catch.' We weren't feeling enthusiastic about steaming, or frying. With a wild-caught fish, a summertime grill seems to be the best bet. Jamie Oliver, in fact, has a great recipe for grilled trout. But seeing as how our grill is hibernating in the shed while the snow hardens to ice outside, roasting is the way to go. It is winter, after all, and any excuse to turn the oven on is a good one -- especially when our trusty Jamie has a recipe for it in one of our go-to cookbooks, The Naked Chef.

The fish, while daunting in size, was ridiculously easy to cook. Cleaned, washed, and ready to go thanks to our fishmonger, all we had to do was season it with salt and pepper, mash up some garlic with thyme and olive oil, rub it all over the fish, and stick some lemon slices in the belly cavity. We also took some whole bunches of thyme and placed them into the belly/head cavity. The recipe also called for lemon halves with bay leaves. You can't really argue with that.

We put it in a 475 degree oven and roasted till the skin was crispy brown; the inside of the fish heated and steam under the skin made it look like the fish was breathing in the oven. We ate the fish with some garlicky roasted potatoes and a simple salad. It was like summer time landed on our table! The bay leaf lemons added a really nice, sweet, flavor to the fish (they would be great with chicken). The fish itself was perfectly cooked, flaky, and flavorful in and of itself. We cut up two fillets for ourselves and had beautiful looking portions on our plates... but by the end of the meal, we found it easier to just push our plates aside, put the tray in between us, and pick up as much tasty meat as we could, right off the fish. We are definitely going fishing this summer!