Pistachio Lemon Pepper Trout
March 31, 2007 – 4:30 pm 
Every year I get a pound of pistachios for Christmas from my grandmother. I’m not one of those people who has time to sit around shelling and eating nuts like a fat squirrel, so it usually takes me a while to go through them. Here it is, the end of March, and I’ve consumed maybe a third of the bag. I also cook with the pistachios from time to time. I’m fortunate to live in hiking distance from the Missouri River, and the gorgeous trout I reeled in the other day had ‘pistachio’ written all over him. The delicate flavor and texture of trout seemed the perfect canvas for a pistachio-tinged fresco of bright aromatics, and so I set about to preparing a fresh masala of pistachio lemon pepper. Ideally this should be completed in a hand-powered mortar and pestle to force the aromatic oils together, but I’ve lived a pretty mobile life for the last year or so and haven’t yet outfitted a permanent enough kitchen to have one. So I crushed pistachios, semi-dry lemon zest and whole black peppercorns with my chef’s knife in roughly equal amounts, then blended and crushed again. There was a sufficient quantity of salt in the pistachios to create a concentric field of olfactory unity between the triumvirate, but after seasoning the trout liberally with this blend, I did sprinkle a few more grains of coarse sea salt. Beyond this, I only inserted a few lemon slices into the body cavity, placed the fish on an oiled pan and hove it into a 450°F oven for broiling.
While the fish, nuts, pepper and lemon came together in the heat, I sauteed a julienne of Portobello and Shiitake mushroom with onions in butter.
I then doused the woody convivium with a few healthy splashes of burgundy and added a proportionate handful of fresh green beans. This was covered and removed from the stove just before the beans’ greenness peaked, and allowed to cook in residual heat until the trout was finished - which wasn’t long.
What else needs to be told? I plated it all up, sat down and enjoyed. Pistachio Lemon Pepper and fresh trout prepared with it were successful amalgams, and they have been duly added to the lexicon.
3 Responses to “Pistachio Lemon Pepper Trout”
I didn’t have trout, but I did have some halibut that I encrusted with your recipe and it was absolutely fantastic! Prste lizati!
By Linda K on Apr 2, 2007
I was very careful to avoid the word “encrust” because it’s become a loathsome cliche in menu descriptions, but I won’t take any points away from you this time.
I’m really happy that you enjoyed it. Pistachios are so nice.
By John J. Goddard on Apr 3, 2007
Yes, you did specify masala. AND link the word to Wikipedia to be clear. Did not mean to give you cliche trauma. Yay masala!
By Linda K on Apr 3, 2007