Stuffed Trout

My Dad is a really good cook. He and I have different cooking styles but he is a very focused cook and everything he attempts is delicious. He dares to try new things and I love that about him. We were invited to dinner Sunday to taste a new recipe he was trying out involving a 5 pound Utah Trout he'd recently caught. Upon removing his creation from the oven he exclaimed "Blog it!" ... which I thought was really sweet and funny... then I looked at it, sent my daughter upstairs to get my sister and her "fancy" camera and had her shoot some shots. It was lovely but what's even better is it was delicious! He told me he'd searched the web and found this recipe on Taste Book. You could use a salmon or even a white fish (lean toward a more dense and less flaky fish) and it would be incredible! It's mild yet full of flavor...

Stuffed Trout

1 5-8lb. Trout
1/2lb. cooked shrimp-chopped
1/2lb. shredded crab meat (my Dad used canned)
6T butter
3T onion-finely chopped
3T parsley-chopped
3T celery-chopped
1 1/2C breadcrumbs
2 eggs-beaten
salt and pepper
extra butter

Split and clean trout (fillet if desired). Prepare shrimp and crab. Melt butter and saute onion, parsley and celery until softened. Remove from heat and add breadcrumbs, crab meat, shrimp and eggs. Mix well, season with salt and pepper and stuff trout. Brush exterior with butter and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Baste with butter once while baking.

Serve with fresh lemon

Mediterranean Pasta

Mediterranean Pasta

1 package pasta (your choice)
4T olive oil
1 clove garlic
20 Kalamata olives
2 t capers
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 jar artichoke hearts (drained)
1/2C pepperoni (diced)
1C feta cheese
1 pound roasted tomatoes (see below)

Boil pasta, drain, toss with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and set aside.
To make the tapenade combine the olives, garlic, capers and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse for about 20 seconds then drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat a pan then add remaining olive oil and heat before adding the tapenade. Reduce heat to very low and saute the tapenade. Add the artichoke hearts, toss and remove from heat. Toss the sauce and pasta together, then add pepperoni and tomatoes. Sprinkle with feta and serve.

Roasted Tomatoes

1 pound plum tomatoes (halved)
3 whole cloves garlic (peeled)
2T olive oil
1t salt

Preheat oven to 250. Line 2 baking sheets with foil and place the tomatoes, skin side down, on the foil. Scatter garlic cloves throughout the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil and salt. Bake for 2 hours (the tomatoes should turn a light brown around the edges and be extremely sweetly fragrant). Cool completely and discard garlic. Toss into pasta or place in a bowl and serve them on an antipasti platter (or as a snack!).

I also like to pack them in oil, in canning jars. They freeze and keep for 2 months.