Stuffed Trout (Plnený Pstruh)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here in the USA, the custom for Thanksgiving is to bake a turkey stuffed with a bread-based “stuffing”. Since neither Sandra nor I are huge fans of baked turkey nor the stuffing, we decided to prepare a Thanksgiving meal with a Slovak twist – a stuffed trout. This is just one of many different kinds of stuffed trout recipes. We stuffed it with potatoes, onions, spinach, and spices. You could also use bacon, mushrooms, or other vegetables you like.
Ingredients: 2 pieces of trout, 3 potatoes, one onion, handful of spinach, handful of fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon marjoram, 1 tablespoon paprika, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, olive oil
Prep Time: 90 minutes
I started by peeling, dicing, and cooking potatoes. I then washed two pieces of sea trout I picked up in Grand Mart in the Seven Corners area. According to “normal” American grocery stores (I am looking at you Giant!), there are only 3 types of fish: salmon, tuna, and tilapia, and they exist in the wild in the form of filets. If you want to find a whole fish, you’ll need to venture into an international market, which luckily we have quite a few here in Northern Virginia.
Wash the fish, and also run a knife against the skin to remove the scales. Then slice open the “stomach”, remove internal organs and gills, and wash the insides well.
Slice open the “back” and remove the spine and bones.
Next, take a thread and needle and sew the stomach shut. In theory you should use a special baking thread but we didn’t have any so we used a regular thread instead.
In the meantime, I also quickly steamed the spinach, and mixed it with a finely diced onion. I didn’t fry the onion, only mixed it with the spinach in the warm pot. Next, I added potatoes, paprika, parsley, marjoram, oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
Place the trout on a greased baking pan. Fill the trout with the stuffing. Lightly sew the top together. Then dust the top with bread crumbs, cover with aluminum foil, and place in oven preheated to 380F for about 45 minutes.
Our kitten April was not too interested in the trout.
Finally carefully transfer the baked trout onto a plate. I briefly fried the leftover stuffing and used it as a side dish. Enjoy!
By the way, in the picture is a traditional Slovak apple cake we also baked for Thanksgiving. The recipe will be posted soon.
It looks and sounds delicious, Lubos – thank you for posting.
Here in Montana, we are able to catch some of the world’s best trout. I will give this a try next spring!
Ahoj Lubos! How are you?
I am look on your site for SlovaChristmas Eve supper. Pisale, skoro!
Philka Indiana, USA