Trout with Caper Artichoke sauce

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.