After getting fennel in our produce basket, I was on the hunt for some halibut to go with it. No dice at Dominick's. Instead, we picked up some delicious looking trout. I wasn't sure how we could prepare it, but found this recipe online, which looked pretty simple.
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| Here, fishy fishy fishy! |
The mixture that goes on the trout is made up of butter, paprika, lemon, barbecue sauce and cayenne pepper. What the what?!? That sounds really weird. We had some Sweet Baby Ray's in house, so I figured whatever happened -- it would probably still be pretty good. Or you dump more barbecue sauce on it and it's fine.
After mixing all of the components together, brush this on the trout ahead of time (you add more while cooking as well).
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| The sauce IS boss, so it can't go too wrong, right? |
Alongside the fish, I found a
recipe/article by my hero Mark Bittman that would take care of both the fennel and the celery that we had received in the produce basket. Even without the halibut.
BOOM. Salad.
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| Bravely figuring out the fennel. |
Bittman's recipe doesn't really give you quantities, so I eyeballed it. After following his directions to quarter the fennel and take off the hard outer leaves, I sliced it thin on the mandolin, and did the same with the celery. Add a TON of lemon juice, a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and some shaved Parmesan, and this guy is good to go.
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| All combined with some mood lighting. |
Paul got to work on the grill. He put the fish on and cooked them for 10 minutes on a medium heat.
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| I wonder what our neighbors think, while we're taking 900 pictures of the grill. |
He then brushed them with some of the remaining sauce, and cooked them for an additional 2 minutes on the grill.
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| I know this picture looks similar to the first one, but it's cooked under there. Promise. |
We cut the fish into normal sized portions, and ate it alongside the fennel and celery salad.
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| Ooh, pretty. |
The note alongside the recipe is totally true -- you wouldn't think this is good, but it really is! The fish was really good! The barbecue sauce is not overpowering -- the combination of ingredients has a nice flavor.
The salad is quite refreshing -- the fennel has a licorice-like flavor (but not gross, I promise). Adding a lot of lemon juice and pepper really tones it down and blends well. The celery and fennel are similar in consistency, so they make for a nice crunchy bite. Plus, throw some Parm on it, and I'll probably like it anyways.
Update: we've gotten fennel again in our produce basket, and I made the same salad. Second round was just as good as the first!
