- Yield: 4 servings
Crab-Stuffed Mountain Trout with Preserved Lemon, Corn and Lobster Succotash
Recipe courtesy of Shelley Cooper, Executive Chef, Dancing Bear Lodge and Apalachian Bistro, Townsend, Tenn.
Ingredients
- For Preserved Lemon (must be made 3-5 days in advance)
- water - 6 cups
- lemons - 6
- white vinegar - 4 cups
- salt - 1 cup
- sugar - 1 cup
- pickling spice - 1 cup
- For Succotash
- corn - 1 cup, fresh off the cob
- black-eyed peas - 1 cup, fresh, cooked
- lobster - 1 cup, roughly cut cooked
- bacon grease - 4 Tbsp.
- sweet yellow onions - 1/2 cup, thinly sliced
- sweet red peppers - 1/2 cup, diced
- salt - to taste
- pepper - to taste
- Pernod - 1/4 cup
- sprigs chervil - to garnish
- yellow pea tendrils - to garnish
- For Crab-Stuffed Trout
- trout - 4 whole 8 ozs., fresh, headed (if you choose), gutted, rinsed and patted dry
- unsalted butter - 2 Tbsps.
- fresh domestic lump crab - 1/2 cup
- preserved lemon - 8 slices, roughly chopped
- combination torn tarragon and basil - 1/4 cup
- kosher salt - to taste
- white pepper - to taste
- unsalted butter - 6 Tbsps.
- orange zest - to garnish
- lemon zest - to garnish
Instructions
For Preserved Lemon
- Bring water to a boil in a medium-size pot. Add the whole lemons and cook for 5 minutes. Discard water. Cut lemon into paper-thin slices.
- Bring vinegar, salt sugar and pickling spice to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
- Transfer lemons and all liquids to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate.
For Succotash
- In a large sauté pan, melt bacon grease. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add corn, black-eyed peas, lobster and peppers, and cook over high heat for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Turn off heat and add Pernot, salt and pepper.
For Crab- Stuffed Trout
- Set oven at 400°F.
- Mix 2 Tbsp. soft butter with crab, lemons, herbs, salt and pepper, and evenly stuff each trout with crab mixture.
- Melt 6 Tbsp. soft butter in a cast-iron pan. Over mediu heat, cook trout 4 to 5 minutes per side. If necessary, finish cooking the trout int he oven to prevent skin from getting too dark.
- Use a microplane to zest orange and lemon over the top of the fish after plating.