Country of origin: Bosnia
Offered by: Vesna Maric
To feed
: 2
Suitable for: Meat / Fish eaters
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 20 – 25 mins
Vesna says
This recipe is an amalgam of my home and travel. The trout from Neretva, the river that runs through my home town, Mostar, is fat and shiny and rich and freckly, and men of all ages stand waist deep in the cold current for hours on end, battling with the rods and whirls until they catch one. So I grew up loving trout and its juicy, thick meat.
Then I went to Cyprus. They grill fish beautifully there, though they catch theirs from the sea, and they stuff it with lemons and sprinkle with thyme and olive oil, so it’s just perfect and very simple. I combined the two and made my favourite dish.
Ingredients
1kg of good organic trout (I get mine at Waitrose’s fish counter)
3 lemons, sliced into sunny circles
A bunch of carrots
An onion
1 unpeeled garlic
Some potatoes, parsnips, whatever’s in season, chopped roughly.
Cooking Method
- Get the fishmonger to gut your fish; then, brush the fish, inside and out with olive oil, and then lightly salt it all over.
- Place your sliced lemons inside the fish’s belly, fitting at least two in each fish, and sprinkle with thyme.
- Put a couple of blobs of butter on top of the fish.
- Cut up your veggies and chuck them in randomly, together with any remaining lemons, covering everything with olive oil, salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
- Cover your tray with foil and put inside a pre-heated oven (gas mark 7) for 20-25 minutes. (When checking, make sure you don’t scald yourself on the trapped steam).
- Take the fish out when it’s juicy and falling apart.
- Pop open a good bottle of white wine, chilled to the bone. And enjoy.
