Still celebrating

Chardonnay poached rainbow trout. This was just crazy good!

This is a 10 oz. whole rainbow trout. Well over an inch thick along the spine. So, how do you cook something like that? I would love to have butterflied and broiled it but I don't have the skill to pull that off. Poaching is the best (easy!) way I know to get the thick part along the back and the thin part along the belly both properly cooked. And trout I think takes to poaching really well.

I sweated chopped carrots, celery and onion, about 1/3 of a cup each, in some olive oil to bring a little more flavor to the poaching liquid. When they were soft and translucent I put in a cup of chardonnay and after that boiled off a bit I put in enough water to cover the fish. After boiling that for 5 or 6 minutes I turned down the heat and got out a thermometer. Liquid at 190 degrees looks exactly the same as liquid at 160 degrees. So I use a thermometer. I like to put the fish in around 180 degrees and let it drift down, keeping it between 160 and 170.

I poached the fish for 16 or 17 minutes. I put maybe a teaspoon or so of dried thyme into the liquid and gave the pan a gentle swirl.

That's brown rice and zucchini with it. Underneath the fish is a bed of lettuce and this stuff:

I don't know what that's called. It's Cuban or Puerto Rican. It's equal parts of finely chopped jalapeño and red onion, a pinch of salt, covered in lime juice. It starts like this:

It's *wonderful* stuff and I have it with salmon, tuna, swordfish, and I have it on hot dogs and hamburgers.

Oh and another thing! My sister has this knack for always finding the perfect gift. She sent me a Penzeys herb gift box for my birthday!

I was going to put some fresh thyme in my poaching liquid but the dried thyme from Penzeys is just so good. Definitely two thumbs up!