By Perry Washburn
On the first real day of Carolyn's vacation (we are hosting visitors at home), we were looking for fast, but good, food. On a late store run, we spied some decent looking trout. Now, what to do with it? I remembered I had an open jar of artichokes in olive oil, and decided to go tart/lemony with the sauce. This was easy, and very, very good.
1 lb trout filets
sea salt
paprika
1/2 cup artichoke hearts in olive oil (chop the hearts, save the oil)
2 Tbs capers, diced
1 Tbs flour
2 Tbs lemon thyme
1 Tbs lemon juice
3 Tbs dry white wine
fresh cracked black pepper
lemon slices
3 Tbs chopped cilantro
I first pulled the artichokes out of the oil, and diced them. After washing and patting dry the fish, I rubbed the filets, cut side and skin side both, with oil from the artichokes. Then sprinkled them with a mixture of sea salt and paprika (I used smoked paprika).
In a small sauce pan, I added 2 Tbs of remaining oil from the artichoke jar, and got it hot. I added a Tbs flour to make a mild roux-like mixture, stirring that for a couple of minutes. To his I added the chopped artichokes, capers, lemon juice, lemon thyme from my herb garden, 3 Tbs dry white wine and black pepper. I brought this to a boil, then reduced the heat and cooked it for a couple of minutes more until it was thickening just a bit.
I grilled the trout, skin side down, until it was almost done, then carefully turned it to brown the cut side. I removed it to a platter, cut it into portions, topped each piece with hot sauce and a liberal dusting of chopped cilantro. Lemon slices garnished the serving platter.
