Broiled Trout - Full Recipe & Video (Date Night Dinners #1)

(Full recipe at the bottom)

So it’s date night, what are you making? How about this beautiful roasted trout? Tell me they wouldn’t love to see this, made by you, all for them. This is the first episode in a series I’m calling ‘Date Night Dinners’, where I’m going to do recipes that are delicious, beautiful, and worthy of sharing with your special someone.

I’m using trout here that I picked up at Aldi, but salmon would work perfectly as a sub. This will be served with aromatic basmati rice and some nice charred broccoli. First step is to get our rice washed and soaking.

Why do we wash rice, anyway? As the grains rub on each other in the bag, small bits grind away into powder that would negatively affect the texture of the finished rice, making it stickier than expected and not nice individual grains like we want.

So, we rinse the rice to get this starch off, and it’s important that you do so in cold water so the starches don’t begin to swell. Rinse until the water is mostly clear, this usually takes 3-4 rinses.

Basmati rice wants 1.5 parts water to each part of rice, but since the rice is a little wet from rinsing I’m going to go a little shy of that, like 1.25. I season my rice with salt and oil, corn oil specifically. I just like the flavor, but you can use what you like, or butter, or nothing at all. Your call.

Now we give it a mix and let the rice hang out in the cooker, unplugged, for 20 minutes. It’s not required, but this soak helps elongate the rice to its full size and makes for a nicer presentation.

Next up, broccoli prep. I like to break heads up into pieces just a little bigger than bite size, this helps them stand up to the broiler a little better as we’ll see in a little bit.

If you have an air fryer, that’s an even better option, but mine is occupied. It’s moonlighting as a dehydrator for the clementine peels left from making Cinco, but we’ll talk about that in another video.

Once cut, coat the broccoli in a healthy amount of olive oil. Remember, the florets have a lot of surface area and they’ll hold more oil than you think at first. We want at least a thin layer to both help it roast better and to let the seasoning stick.

As for what seasoning, that’s totally up to you. My personal favorite is Lowry’s seasoned salt, but just about anything works well here, including just salt & pepper.

Next we’re going to make the seasoning paste for the fish. Now, stick with me here, because the first time I saw this recipe I definitely had some reservations. We’re going to start with a base of mayonnaise, and yes this is going in the oven. It’s going to be incredible, you’ll see.

To the mayo I’m adding the newest hot sauce in my lineup, Avamasala, a curry mustard flavor that is quickly becoming one of my favorites to cook with. This has a rich blend of curry spices (including some of those clementine peels we saw earlier), tangy mustard, and brings a warm hug of flavor that’s going to shine for this dish.

I’m also grating in a clove of garlic and adding in a splash of vinegar, rice in this case. Once this is mixed up, give it a little taste to see how delicious this meal is about to be. This paste doesn’t need salt, because we’re going to add that directly to the fish so it can work its way into the whole filet.

Once the fish is salted, line a baking sheet with foil and arrange the pieces on top before brushing them down with the spice paste. Be generous, this stuff is awesome.

Line another sheet pan for your broccoli. Make sure you use foil, both of these pans are going under the broiler on high! At this point, dinner is prepped and in a holding pattern. You can schmooze and talk, have some drinks, and enjoy each other's company until someone gets hungry.

When the signal is given, start the rice. After about 5 minutes, turn the broiler on high and set the rack about 8 inches from the element. Let this preheat for a few minutes, and when the rice is about halfway, throw in the broccoli.

Once the broccoli is about half done, give it a stir and put the fish in as well. You’re going to broil this for 5 minutes, until the top is well browned and looking delicious. After that, turn the oven on at 350F and leave the fish to finish cooking to an internal temperature of 130F. This will only take 3-4 extra minutes, so don’t go far.

Once all your components are ready, it’s time to assemble! This meal is really not overly complicated, is super delicious while not being too heavy, and looks great. All date night wins! So get out there and make someone happy that they met you. Thanks for following along, I’ll catch you on the next one!