O.K. It's kind of a mental game of mine to not add up the cost of the two trout I just cooked: 200 miles driving, new rod and reel, new line and bait, trout tags, park tags, trout at park tags, fishing tags, 48 hours of being tied up fishing, no no no, I'm not adding up those costs. Or, maybe at the end I should say . . . priceless, like the credit card ad. Whatever. Also, when you work so hard to get two fish, cooking them is awfully nerve wracking. It look some time flipping through the trout pages in the book to land on the first of, hopefully, several trout recipes to try. Trout Saor is Bernadett'e wild version of sarde in saor, which is apparently a sardine appetizer from Venice--never been there myself but love their blinds.
Anyway . . . another mental game is not thinking about how much time (and mind you a fairly good percent of this time was before 6:00 am) it took to catch two trout as you're trying a pretty risky recipe. 'Cause guess what? From the looks of it "saor" means something like pickled fish with cinnamon and onions, and let's not forget the raisins. Gulp.
And to top it off, the recipe calls for pine nuts which are so expensive they might as well be diamonds from Micheal Jackson's white glove.
In general, the fish is floured and fried, then marinaded in vinegar, sauted onion, sugar, cinnamon, golden raisins and nuts for 24 hours. And, to top it off the dish is served at room temperature. I'm telling you, it was H-A-R-D hard to make this recipe with our two fish. And, I've already said "to top it off" but to top it off again, I, of course, burned the pine nuts my first go-round with toasting them and had to buy another batch. I think my eye is twitching just thinking back on it.
Worst of all, I think, was that I was pretty sure the kids weren't going to like the dish. They adore trout and I was so afraid they would be disappointed in what I had done to these two perfectly lovely fish. I was almost depressed serving dinner that night, ready to feel like a total buffoon. And, this is why I love Fred. Guess what? He took four servings! Can you believe it (all you that know him can, I bet)? He really said he liked the dish a lot. And, Henry liked it, too. I bet he went back nearly four times himself, though for him it would be purely for the enjoyment of eating and not to prop up my cooking-ego. Oliver, I gave him a piece of trout without the onions and sauce and he ate it, though wasn't asking for more. It's not fluorescent orange mac and cheese after all. Me, I was so wrapped up in a ball of nervous twine by the time I served it, I can't say I really enjoyed the dinner. I'll give the bit of leftovers a try at lunch and see what I think, now that I've had a chance to step away.
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