oopsfish

hello! i'm still getting my bearings after a quick vacation this past weekend - me and a few friends booked a b&b in nashville, tennessee; i'd been looking forward to it for weeks, and i packed my suitcase carefully the night before - i'm a notorious over-packer, and wanted to travel light this time - and was headed out the door for work when i realized that i didn't have my passport. (i've lived in new york for nearly four years, and chicago for five years before that, so when i lost my driver's license a couple years ago i got real lazy and just didn't replace it.) sam had taken off for a fishing trip a morning earlier, and my passport had gone right along with him and was now residing in his jacket pocket somewhere on a river in connecticut. so. vacation was off to a rough start.

as it turns out, getting on an airplane without a photo ID is not as difficult as you may think. i brought along every piece of paper i could find with my name on it - birth certificate, marriage certificate, social security card, mail - even my wedding invitation! - and got a little extra TSA action, but got to nashville and back without a hitch. it was a perfect vacation - a few days with some of my very best friends, eating, drinking, dancing and vintage shopping our way through the city. we found a shop called savant vintage that was absolutely miraculous - jam packed with some of the most incredible vintage pieces i've ever seen, including these trousers.




blouse - vintage, from brooklyn flea
earrings - handmade by the owner of savant vintage
pants - vintage, savant vintage
shoes - madewell

so, while i was galavanting about tennessee, my sam was camping out with a bunch of his friends, and he brought home a bag full of trout of different varieties. i decided to pair one - simply prepared - with a dish inspired by one i had at city house in nashville.

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swiss chard, raisin and almond salad

1 bunch of swiss chard
2 thin carrots, cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup toasted almonds
1/2 small red onion, cut into thin slices
a splash of olive oil, honey, and white wine vinegar
kosher salt

turn the oven to 350 and place the carrots in a foil-lined sheet pan with a splash of olive oil and drizzling of honey. roast until soft, about 20 minutes.

from here it's easy - sauté the chard in the smallest bit of olive oil until dark green and limp; take off the heat and add a tiny bit of white wine vinegar, then stir in the raisins, almonds, and carrots. season with salt to taste.








the fish should be even easier - but i've been trying this new health-ish kick lately, and i didn't put enough olive oil in the pan, and i kind of mangled the poor thing. trout has such good flavor on its own that i like to prepare it simply, with a little lemon, salt and pepper; just be sure you put enough butter or oil in the pan that you don't ugly it up like i did.






ugly or not, it was utterly delicious and a nice pairing of mild and earthy and sweet.

hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and i promise more soon -

xo audrey

trouty mouth

ladies, i highly recommend marrying a fisherman. in my experience, at least, they are handsome, charming, sweet, and funny, and top of all of that they will bring home beautiful fresh fish for you to cook up. and then heap praise on you for doing so. it's a pretty sweet life.

sam and i spent the weekend in connecticut, meeting with our florist and hitting thrift stores to find serving ware for the wedding. i hit the cloche JACKPOT and got like four of them for $12, plus a bunch of old glass jars that will be great for flowers. but while i slept in until 10 am both days, sam got up early and brought home dinner.



sam had a great trout cookbook he'd picked up at a goodwill along the way, so i adapted this recipe from it and made it for us last night:


trout and fennel cream with pate a choux

for the pate a choux:

1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of water
a heaping 1/2 cup of ap flour
about 2 ounces of grated gruyere, plus more for sprinkling
2 eggs, beaten

preheat the oven to 350.

start a large pot with the butter and water on medium heat. once melted, add your flour and stir stir stir, until it's dried a lot and there's a film on the bottom of the pan. let it cool for a couple of minutes and then dump in the cheese and stir, then the eggs little by little until they're totally absorbed. take a 10 inch dinner plate (or other round thing) and trace it on a piece of parchment paper; flip it and use a stick of butter to attach it to a cookie sheet. put the choux in a piping bag and pipe it onto the circle. sprinkle with the rest of the cheese, and put it in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes (until the underside is well browned.)

trout & fennel cream filling
(the original recipe called for watercress in place of the arugula and fennel, but i didn't have any so i just subbed what i had. [and it was awesome.])

2/3 cup of wine
1/3 cup of water
4 parsley stalks, chopped
2 bay leaves
one trout (ours was about 18 inches and rainbow)

put all ingredients in a saucepan with high walls and poach the fish for a few minutes on each side until it's fully cooked. strain the liquid and save it; put the fish on a cutting board and peel back the skin and use the fork to remove the meat. repeat on the other side. discard bones & skin.

2 T butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup of flour
reserved liquid from poaching
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of heavy cream
trout meat
2 oz grated gruyere
about 1/3 cup of chopped fennel
about 1/2 cup of raw arugula
salt & pepper to taste

start the butter in a saucepan; add the onion and cook until soft. add the flour and stir to coat it with the stove on medium-low heat. add the poaching liquid and stir; it should start to get creamy. add the trout and stir, then add the milk slowly, stirring all the while, then finally the cream. once it's been reduced and is good and thick and no liquid remains, turn the heat to very low and check on the pate a choux ring (it should be done, or close to it.) take it out and let it cool for a few minutes before slicing it in half and cleaning out the soft dough in the middle. take the trout mixture off the stove and add in the cheese, arugula, and fennel. season to taste and then spoon into the pate a choux and top with the other half. voila! it's tricky to cut but DELICIOUS.




i came straight from connecticut to work this morning, so i'm a bit bleary and wearing some new thrifted duds from this weekend - more from me soon!

xo audrey