Cookaholics Bulletin Board

All,

I just cased my cookbooks, and discovered that I have no recipes for doing a nut coating for butterfly trout. I have hazelnuts on hand, but could also do pecans. Anyone have anything?

The best nut crust on fish I've done went like this:
Coarse grind the nuts and toss with some panko. Season with salt and pepper, and whatever flavors you want. A bit of sugar or maple syrup is nice too.
Flour the fillets, then dip in egg/milk wash, then in nut mix. You only need to do one side. Let rest in the cooler for at least 30 minutes.
Fry in hot butter with a bit of oil added, starting with the crust side down. Turn carefully to finish. You can make a nice pan sauce or burre blanc if you want to, or any other sauce that goes with the fish.
For a butterflied trout, I would brush the flesh side with the egg then press the nuts on. I don't think they would adhere to the skin very well, and it wouldn't get crispy, which is gross.
BeckyH

Becky,

Generally when I've fried nut crusts, they tend to burn. How do I avoid that?

Once the butter/oil is hot, add the fish and turn down the heat. Most of the cooking happens with the crust up, all you're doing really is browning the crust and starting the fish cooking on that side so when you flip it it's not dry on the bottom and raw on the top.
Another trick is to brown the crust on the stove, then finish in the oven.
Restaurants tend to use the saute first method, but this can also be done just in the oven. The oven doesn't need to be too hot.
BeckyH
Did you ever fix that gasket?

Becky,

Nope. Never fixed it.

BTW, since your advice came a little too late, I tried doing them in the oven, with a little mayonnaise to make the nuts stick, and a little tarragon for flavor. It was ok, and a lot less messy than frying, but somehow lacked something in the way of flavor. Probably butter.

If you're going to be baking them, you can either drizzle some melted butter on top just before baking or add some butter to the crust mix. If you use melted butter the crust sticks together a bit more, like a cracker crust. If you use solid butter it becomes closer to a crisp topping (like a fruit crisp)
BeckyH