Recipe: Trout Stuffed with Couscous, Almonds & Herbs

Trout Stuffed
with Couscous, Almonds & Herbs

Serves 4

Trout Stuffed with Couscous Couscous is often used as a stuffing for fish, meat and poultry. It makes a lighter, more open-textured filling than bread crumbs, so I find that I am adapting more and more of my stuffing recipes to incorporate it. In this recipe, almonds provide an interesting textural contrast. Serve with warm bread.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2/3 cup couscous
1-1/4 cups fish or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped mint
4 whole trout, each weighing about
12 ounces, cleaned, heads removed and boned
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup sliced almonds

To garnish:
Lemon wedges
Mint sprigs

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and fry until softened, adding the garlic toward the end. Stir in the couscous, fish or vegetable stock, parsley and mint. Bring to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat and leave for 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed.

2. Season the trout with salt and pepper and fill the cavity of each one with one-fourth of the couscous mixture. Lay the fish in a greased shallow baking dish. Mix the remaining oil with the almonds and spoon over the fish. Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F. oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the fish flakes when tested with a fork.

3. Garnish with lemon wedges and mint sprigs.

The Moroccan Collection:
Traditional Flavors from Northern Africa
By Hilaire Walden
Soma Books, 1998
Hardback, $25.00
144 pages with color photos
ISBN: 1-57979-017-9
Recipe Reprinted by permission.