Wednesday: Trouts and tarts

Rainbow trout baked with fennel, carrot and sweet peppers.

We improvised this bake to take advantage of the sweet, fatty flavor of upstate rainbow trout, which bears some resemblance to salmon.  (On the basis of that resemblance, we also added a generous amount of dill.)  We sauteed the vegetables with some onion before layering them over the fish in a casserole, and then baked it at 350F for about fifteen minutes.  We probably could have gotten away with a minute or two less - but this all depends on the size of the fish.

We also had a special dessert tonight: a red currant tart, cooked in the brand new ramekins we acquired thanks to Giselle's end-of-law-school Westlaw Points redemption extravaganza.

Fool me once...fool me...you can't get fooled again!

Redcurrant and yellow cherry fool.

A fool is (or so we have just learned) a classic British dessert, in which a fruit puree is mixed with some combination of sugar and cream/yogurt/egg whites. The recipe we followed called only for cream and yogurt, in addition to the fruit.

This was unbelievably good, in no small part because of the excellent cream (Ronnybrook Farm) and yogurt (Milk Thistle Farm) that we used. It really does make a difference.


red currants, pre-topping and tailing

As Giselle was beating the cream with some sugar, we were remarking in amazement at the increased volume and stiffness of the mixture. Then, it occurred to us that we were making the exotic substance known as "whipped cream." We are apparently still so alienated from the means of production that we did not realize what were making until we had made it.