15. PAN-FRIED TROUT with SMOKY BACON, HAZELNUTS, and LEMON-SAGE BUTTER

serves four


1 cup whole hazelnuts
6 slices smoked country bacon
4 trout (about 8 oz. each), cleaned, with heads left on
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 scallions, washed and trimmed to the length of the fish
Unbleached all-purpose flour seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
Juice of 1 lemon
12 large fresh sage leaves or 1 teaspoon dried

Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in a preheated 350˚F oven about 15 minutes, or until the skins have split. Put them in a dish and cover with plastic wrap until they’ve cooled a bit; then rub them with a towel to remove as much skin as possible. Chop the nuts.

Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp and reserve the drippings in the skillet. Drain the bacon on paper towels, crumble it, and set aside.

Add salt and pepper to the cavity of each trout and then place 2 trimmed scallions in each as well.

Dredge the trout in seasoned flour.

Heat the bacon drippings in the skillet and fry the trout, about 6 minutes per side.

In a small saucepan, heat together the butter and lemon juice and add the sage leaves. Spoon the lemon-sage butter over the trout and sprinkle with the hazelnuts and crumbled bacon.


courtesy of: Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland: 200 Recipes Blending Bold, New Flavors with the Traditional Foods of the Upper Midwest by Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson. New York: Knopf, 1994, pp. 217-217