Thursday, August 08, 2013

Lake Trout With Lime Leaves and Ginger and a Coconut Rice Recipe That'll Blow Your Mind!

I have a beautiful lime tree growing in a pot that produces far more leaves than I can plop into a curry. This recipe was an attempt to use a few. The leaves grow in pairs, so let's call this six (because it sounds better than three, duh).

I had a beautiful fillet of Canadian lake trout (it didn't say which lake, or if it came from a Great Lake at all) that was a steal at $6.00 a pound. My first thought was to bake it in breadcrumbs-but then I thought of the poor Admiral. Nelson. Because it is a lime (y) tree . Yes, we name our plants.

The boys demolished dinner. There are no leftovers. As a bonus, it was quick, and honestly easy to make (some people say things are easy when in fact they are a pain in the behind. This really requires no special skills).

Serves Three to Four normal people, or two abnormally greedy ones. Guess which ones we have?

You Will Need:
For the Trout

1-2 lbs. trout fillets
4 tablespoons butter, softened to the point of nearly melted
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
2 cloves finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 double lime leaves, finely sliced into threads (remove centre vein)
Salt to taste
2 large carrots finely cut into thin matchsticks

Wash trout and salt lightly. Lay each on foil or parchment as you will be sealing it in packets. Use whichever you prefer. Combine the butter, ginger, garlic, pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, and lime leaves. Spread evenly on fillets. Divide carrots and pile evenly atop each fillet. Seal them, and place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 450 degrees F. for about 20 minutes, or until done. Meanwhile, make the rice.

For the Rice:

1 1/2 cups coconut water made by soaking 1 cup flaked coconut and 2 cups boiling water for 20 minutes, then draining. Save any extra for another use. I prefer this to tinned coconut milk.
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger (more or less to taste)
1 double lime leaf, whole
1 whole star anise
1 cup basmati rice

Bring everything except rice to a boil. Stir in rice, reduce to simmer. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and let sit ten minutes longer. Remove lime leaves and star anise before serving.

To Serve:

I placed the fish and carrots over the rice, then poured the extra sauce in the packet over everything. I also served cold, boiled asparagus because we had it, and we love it. It went better with the overall effect than I would have imagined.

Start to finish, dinner took about 30 minutes, save for the coconut water which I did ahead. Easy. See, I told you.

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