I made dinner last night and – true to form – fish was on the menu. Those of you who know me are aware of my overwhelming love of seafood.
Appetizer: Seared Scallop with Truffle Salt
This is an easy one. You heat a greased cast iron pan slowly until it reaches maximum heat.
While the pan is heating, you baste your large scallop with olive oil (or grapeseed oil) and your favourite flavoured salt (mine is black truffle salt).
Then you just place scallop on the pan and wait until it is seared to the point of detachment.
Garnish with some basil leaves or tarragon – I keep both growing in ugly little pots in my kitchen.
Apricot Glazed Trout with Black Rice Pilaf
You buy a steelhead or rainbow trout filet (I am partial to steelhead – it’s a little fattier).
You make a glaze with apricot jam (preferably from a home-made very lightly sweetened jar), some old-style grainy mustard, a splash of maple syrup, a touch of honey and some salt and pepper.
Then you bake the trout for about 20 mins, give or take, depending on how hot your oven is and how big the trout filet is.
I served it with a simple black rice pilaf – just boiled black rice with a hint of olive oil, salt and pepper.
As well, I grabbed some couple of days old cabbage that I had slawed and garnished it with a makeshift aioli made from a couple of table spoons of olive oil mayo, some capers, garlic, salt, pepper and sherry vinegar.
Voilà – a lovely glazed trout and rice that tastes even better cold the next day for lunch!
Leftovers Trout Lunch
I served the trout cold – it was lovely, with the flavours in the baked glaze combining overnight. The rice I served cold as well, with a diced kumato, some olive oil, rice vinegar, salt and pepper. I plopped a preserved artichoke heart (in olive oil) beside it. A quick, tasty lunch after Church and a hard swim.
Wine Pairings
For dinner, I paired this with McWilliams Elizabeth Sémillon [Australia] which has a lovely citrus note that went well with the .
Today for lunch, I had a sip of Kew Vineyards Old Vines Riesling [2012 VQA Beamsville Bench] with the cold trout and the black rice/kumato