Trout with Lemon Tarragon Dressing
Grilled trout is marinated in a lemon, garlic and tarragon dressing. This dish is great hot off the grill or chilled on a bed of greens and as light Summer salad. Quick and easy to prepare with a just a few ingredients. This recipe is a great reason to plant tarragon in your garden or a pot. Tarragon grows well here in Wisconsin. It is hardy and will over-winter just fine.
Recipe: Trout in Lemon, Garlic and Tarragon Dressing
Summary: A quick Summer dish with simple ingredients. The flavors of lemon zest, garlic and tarragon are balanced by the smokey flavor of grilled trout.
Prep Time: 30 minutes or so
Serves 4 if you use larger fillets or as a salad.
Ingredients
- 2 Trout Fillets (1 to 1.5 pounds total) – skin on, bones removed, fins cut off
- Zest of 1/2 a lemon finely grated (about 1 Tablespoon)
- 3 tsp Lemon Juice
- 1 Large Clove garlic minced (about 1 Tablespoon)
- 1 Tbls minced fresh Tarragon
- 2 Tbls Olive Oil plus a bit more for the skin side
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Put the lemon juice into a small mixing bowl.
- Whisk in the 2 Tablespoons of olive oil slowly to make an emulsion.
- Add the zest, garlic and tarragon and whisk to combine.
- Cut the fins off of the trout fillets and pat the fillets dry with paper towels.
- Flip the fillets over so they are skin side up. Remove any scales. Salt and pepper the skin and then drizzle a little olive oil on the skin. Pat the oil over the whole skin then flip the fillet over so it is meat side up.
- Spoon half the lemon dressing over the two fillets and spread it evenly on the fish. If the fillets are large, cut them in half. This can also help with cooking since you can put the thicker pieces nearer the heat and the thinner tail pieces further away.
- Let the fish stand at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes while you get the grill ready.
- Make a banked pile of coals (that is-all of the coals on one side of the grill so you have hot direct heat over the coals and cooler indirect heat on the far side of the grill). When the coals are hot; grill the fillets, skin side down, directly over the coals for 3 minutes. Then turn the grill (don’t flip the fish) to move the fillets to indirect heat side of the grill. Let the fillets cook for 4 minutes more or until the fillets flake easily and are no longer raw inside.
- Spoon the remainder of the dressing over the fillets and serve.
Variations
You can use thyme or parsley instead of tarragon. You can also use lime juice and lime zest. You will need the zest of a whole lime to make this dish.
Cooking time (duration): 30
We served this with orzo that was tossed with parsley and olive oil and a lot black pepper, steamed spinach and grape tomatoes from the market.
My Market Year(s) 