Rachael's Daytime Talk Show
John Sierp's Pan-seared Trout with Olive "Tapenade" over Israeli Cous Cous -- 11/04/10

John Sierp's Pan-seared Trout with Olive "Tapenade" over Israeli Cous Cous

Ingredients

  • 2 deboned trout fillets *(skin on) per person
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 stick butter and canola/corn/or Veg oil for frying fish
  • Adobo seasoning
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp dry cumin
  • 1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
  • 1/2 cup small capers rinsed of brine
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • Fresh basil
  • Fresh sage leaves - fry in oil for garnish on top of fish
  • Fresh parsley coarsely chopped
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Roasted Garlic oil (which I make by peeling garlic and cooking in corn/olive oil mix for approx 20 min)
  • 1 1/2 lb Yellow cherry tomatoes cut in half
  • 1 lb Red cherry tomatoes cut in half
  • Toasted pine nuts (*toast your own in advance for use in cous cous at the end)
  • Israeli cous cous
  • Chicken stock
  • Can of Good whole tomatoes

Yields:

Preparation

For tapenade: Blend together olives, garlic oil with some of the garlic, half the capers, one sage leaf, red wine vinegar, add 1/2 lb of the yellow tomatoes the juice from the can of tomatoes, and some of the parsley toward the end and pulse to mix through. You want to see the tomatoes! Set aside.

Put fillets in a bowl with milk. Mix corn starch, flour, adobo, garlic powder and cumin in a bowl. Dredge fish in flour mix. add butter/oil mix to pan and fry fish on both sides -skin side first until done (a few minutes on each side). Make sure skin is crispy.

In a separate pan, sauté red and yellow tomatoes in garlic oil. Add basil, parsley and pine nuts and a bit of chopped sage. Cook couscous according to instructions *(substituting chicken stock for water) adding the tomato mixture when the couscous goes into the stock.

Plate couscous. Place fish on top, add tapenade on top of fish, drizzle EVOO on top. Garnish with fried sage leaves and parsley garnish