#45 - Trout Meunière with Pecan Sauce

We haven't made a new fish in a while, so we opened up some of our cookbooks, found this trout recipe, and decided to give it a go.

Trout Meunière with Pecan Sauce

From Delicious Disney
So apparently, Meunière means "miller's wife", and if there are two things a miller's wife should have plenty of, it's flour and wine. And silly hats.
The other thing this recipe calls for is clarified butter. We didn't get any good pictures of making that, but basically, you cook unsalted butter over low heat until it separates. When you're done with that, you feel like you're ready to start cooking up something tasty at Wisey's.

So outside of clarifying that butter, the first thing you have to do is to dredge the trout in milk and a flour / spice mixture.
Once the dredging is done, it's time to saute the fish, and then make the pecan sauce.

One word of advice - make sure to check the temperature because we left the sauce on a little too high of heat, and we actually had to give it a 2nd try before we got it just right.
How did it come out? Well, we think it was pretty good, but more of a once-in-a-while kinda meal, instead of an oh-my-gosh-this-is-so-good-we-need-to-have-this-as-much-as-possible-and-use-as-many-hyphens-as-it-takes kind of a meal.
If you want a fish dinner suited for a miller, here's what you've got to do:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup flour
• 3/8 Tbs salt
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/8 cup clarified butter, divided
• 2 8-ounce trout fillets
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 Tbs shallots, minced
• 3/8 cup pecans, chopped
• Pinch of flour
• 1/8 cup white wine
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1/2 Tbs parsley, chopped
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation

1. Slowly melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat, never stirring.
2. When the milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan the golden liquid on top is the clarified butter.
3. Skim off any foam and put the clarified butter in a small bowl.
4. In a shallow dish, mix the flour, salt, white pepper, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
5. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat, and add the clarified butter, reserving 1/2 Tbs.
6. Dredge trout in milk, then in the flour mixture, and add to the hot pan.
7. Cook each fillet for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
8. Remove to a serving platter, and keep warm.
9. Wipe out the pan and return to heat, adding the last 1/2 Tbs of clarified butter.
10. Add shallots and saute about 10 seconds.
11. Add pecans and saute for 1 minute.
12. Add a pinch of flour, then whisk in wine and lemon juice, whisking about 30 seconds until smooth and shiny.
13. Remove sauce from heat and add butter and parsley, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
14. Spoon sauce over fish and serve right away.