Mar-Apr2016_Final-FlipBook

CHEF JOHN BESH

John Besh’s Trout Almandine Serves 6 Browning the butter properly makes all the difference in the world. Don’t rush it; take your time swirling the butter around in the pan so that the milk solids brown in a uniform fashion, creating the nutty aroma that is compounded when the almonds are added. Add lemon and serve while the sauce is still foamy. WHAT YOU WILL NEED 6 filets (5-7 ounce) of speckled trout, skin removed 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon Creole Spices 1 cup flour 8 tablespoons butter ½ cup sliced almonds Juice of one lemon 2 tablespoons parsley, minced Salt and pepper, to taste HOW TO PREP Season the filets with salt and pepper and dip into the milk before dredging the flour that has been mixed with the Creole spices. In a large sauté pan on medium high with 4 tablespoons butter, cook the filets until golden brown on each side. Remove the fish and place of a serving plate or platter. Add the remaining butter and cook the butter so that it is swirling in the pan cooking evenly so that it begins to take on a brownish hew. Once it begins to do this lower the heat to medium-low and add the almonds, allowing them to brown while slowly stirring. Once the almonds are uniformly brown add the lemon juice, parsley and a dash of salt. Serve the butter and almonds over each filet of fish immediately. TROUT MEUNIERE VARIATION For Trout Meuniére, follow the exact same recipe but omit the almonds. In traditional French cooking, the fish would be lightly dredged in the flour and cooked in butter — often a whole fish, but in New Orleans we prefer to use the skinless trout fillet. Dipped in a light egg wash before dredging in the flour, this gives the fish a slightly thicker crust.

photo by Rush Jagoe

on lazy afternoons and cast lines and shoot the bull, and Besh marvels at how Dudley can identify a species of fish on his line before he even pulls it out of the water, just by the way it feels and fights on the line. “He’s a bass fisherman that has adopted a very instinctual style of fishing where he doesn’t need live bait,” Besh says of his angling mentor. “He knows what it is and how to deal with that fish versus — like me — where I’m just yanking and yanking!” For all his years and experience, Besh will not attest to being a top grade fisherman. He jokes that his wife Jenny calls him “Two Fish Besh” for his occasional lack of proficiency. But it’s hard to think anyone loves the sport more than he does, or cares more about the state and health of our waters, estuaries, marshlands and lakes. Behind the aw-shucks demeanor is a man committed to Louisiana lifestyle and Louisiana cuisine. All in all, it seems like a good life to be John Besh. Business is booming. Catfish are jumping. It’s springtime, and the living is easy.

Besh Big Easy

John Besh’s fourth cookbook is available at local bookstores and online. It’s filled with downhome reci- pes for mustard-fried catfish, whole roasted snapper, Grandaddy’s Skillet Cornbread and other meals Besh grew up with. Find all of the ingredients at any Rouses Market.

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