Good Fish_ Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the Pacific Coast - Becky Selengut [60]
Remove them immediately with a slotted spoon or tongs and plunge them into the ice bath. When the nettles have cooled, remove them from the ice bath and with your hands squeeze out all the water. Set aside ¼ cup nettles to make the nettle butter, and chop the remaining ½ cup to stuff the trout.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
To prepare the nettle-almond butter, spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Add the toasted almonds and reserved ¼ cup nettles to the bowl of a food processor and pulse for 2 minutes, scraping the mixture down as needed. Add the lemon zest, butter, garlic, salt, and pepper, and pulse for another 2 minutes, or until the butter has achieved a smooth consistency. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 400ºF.
To prepare the stuffing, in a small bowl, combine the carrots, reserved ½ cup chopped nettles, parsley, marjoram, mint, and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
To prepare the trout, season the insides of the trout with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavities with equal parts of the carrot mixture. Lay 3 lemon slices on top of the carrot mixture inside each trout. Secure the trout closed with a few toothpicks. Season the outside of the fish with salt and pepper.
To finish the dish, heat two large cast-iron skillets over high heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to each skillet. When the oil is very hot, carefully place 2 stuffed trout in each skillet. Cook on one side for 5 minutes, or until browned in spots. Very carefully flip the trout over and put the skillets in the oven; cook for another 5 minutes. Take the skillets out of the oven, and turn the broiler on high. Top each trout with about 2 tablespoons of the nettle-almond butter. Just before serving, slide the skillets under the broiler for just a moment to melt and brown the butter.
PAIRING: An albariño, such as Fifiñanes 2008, Rías Baixas, Spain, or an Austrian grüner veltliner.
albacore tuna
I stared blankly at my friend, trying to look knowledgeable. She asked me if I wanted to go in on buying whole local albacore tuna and wondered if I would teach her how to fillet it, which, admittedly, I had never done before. The fish were coming in whole and ungutted off a local boat. "Sure,” I told her, "I’d love to,” and then I hurried off to spend an hour on YouTube, where I found numerous people with wildly different techniques for filleting whole tuna. I picked up a few tips and then sharpened my knives. I pantomimed my attack strategy, looking more like a demented ninja with an inadequate sword than a seasoned albacore filleter.
The day came and I met my friends at Fishermen’s Terminal, where we selected whole fish directly off the boat. On a hot August afternoon we set up a makeshift albacore-processing line. We all took a turn practicing the techniques of gutting, cleaning, skinning, and filleting. It was messy work and “fragrant” at that (gutting fish carries with it a certain special value-added olfactory experience). I saved a few heads for crab bait, and we buried the bones and tails in the yard, deep enough so the dogs wouldn’t find this special treat. The loins, four beautiful rosy pink cuts per fish, were vacuum-sealed in bags marked for our different freezers and packed on ice in coolers. We toasted our stinky, messy selves with a cold, crisp beer, while flies buzzed over our heads, mistaking us for dead fish. And really, who could blame them?
WHAT MAKES THIS A GOOD CHOICE: I encourage you to seek out Pacific Coast troll (or pole)-caught and line-caught albacore tuna. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists it as a “Best Choice,” and the Marine Stewardship Council calls it a “best environmental choice.” There are several reasons why we should support this fishery: 1) It has low bycatch levels because the fish are caught individually and inspected one by one. 2) It has low mercury levels because it targets younger albacore (see Fish