1 hr 20 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 8
About the recipe
This beautiful stuffed fish is a real showstopper. Filled with tapenade and feta-spiked greens, then roasted with seasonal veggies, it looks so impressive and tastes great too. Give it a go!
Ingredients
2kg small Jersey Royal new potatoes
6 cloves of garlic
olive oil
1 large leek
25g unsalted butter
1 bunch of fresh thyme (20g), ideally the flowering kind
500g frozen spinach
1 lemon
100g feta cheese
2 x 750g sides of ChalkStream trout, skin on, scaled and pin-boned, from sustainable sources
4 tablespoons tapenade
8 slices of higher-welfare prosciutto
500g mixed ripe cherry tomatoes on the vine
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
- Parboil the new potatoes in salted boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain well.
- Crush 4 of the garlic cloves in their skin, then toss with the potatoes and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large roasting tray and roast for 30 minutes, or until starting to crisp and brown.
- Meanwhile, make the stuffing for the fish. Peel and finely slice the remaining garlic cloves along with the leek, then place in a large pan on a medium heat with the butter and 1 tablespoon of oil. Pick in half of the thyme leaves and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the spinach and cook for a further 15 minutes, or until all the liquid has evaporated, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat, finely grate in the zest of the lemon and squeeze in the juice of half, season to taste and allow to cool. Once cool, crumble in the feta.
- Season the flesh side of each side of trout with freshly ground black pepper, then spread 2 tablespoons of tapenade across each.
- Lay out 5 pieces of string (about 30cm in length), about 7cm apart, and sit one of the trout sides on top, skin-side down. Spoon over the filling and pat and press it all over the trout, then sit the other side on top, tapenade-side down. Lay over the prosciutto slices, then drizzle the remaining thyme with oil and scatter the sprigs over the trout. Tie the pieces of string together around the trout, securing everything in place.
- Remove the roasting tray from the oven, add the tomatoes, then sit the stuffed trout on top. Return to the oven, immediately reduce the temperature to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and roast for 35 minutes, or until the trout is beautifully cooked through.
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