Week 32: Trout and Veggie Packets

I have to admit. . . I have a thing for the men who work at the meat counter. I'm not sure what it is, but I have an especially soft spot in my heart for the butcher at my local grocery store. I stopped to glance at the fish counter during an after-work sprint through the store. He caught me with his smile and convinced me that I needed to try the trout fillets.

I left the store with two beautiful, pink and silver fillets of trout and no idea what to do with them. A little searching later (there are an alarming number of trout recipes that require a girl to cook the whole trout - eyes and all!) and I found this recipe.

Trout and Veggie Pockets
Adapted from Giada Di Laurentiis

Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 - 30 minutes
Servings: 2

1 lemon, zested
1/2 tsp salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1 lb sugar snap peas, stemmed
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 C white wine
1/4 C lemon juice
4 tsp olive oil
2 (8-ounce) trout fillets, skinned (or other fish about 1/2-inch thick)
4 thin slices lemon
Aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl mix together the lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Lay out the 2 sheets of aluminum foil. Place 1/2 of the sugar snap peas, 1/2 of the yellow bell peppers, and 1/2 of the red bell peppers on each sheet of foil. Over each pile of vegetables drizzle 2 Tbsp of white wine, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, and 1 tsp of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and gently toss.

Top each pile of seasoned vegetables with a piece of fish. Sprinkle the fish with some of the reserved lemon zest mixture. Top each fish with 4 slices of lemon.



Fold up the foil into an air-tight packet. Place the foil packets in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish.



My notes:
This was really tasty and easy. The fish was not "fishy" at all, and the vegetables were perfectly cooked and flavorful. The original recipe said the fish only needed to cook for 18 minutes, but it also said to cook 4 packets with 4 oz of fish in each. The extra-large portions required extra-long cooking time.

We had it with mashed potatoes (a la Pioneer Woman). That wasn't a great side-dish choice. It would have been better with wild rice or gnocchi or plain ol' baked potato.

I feel like I should share the recipe with the man at the meat counter. Would it be wrong to send it to him with a little thank you note? :)