My individual serving size of polenta is fairly large
Steel head trout looks and tastes almost exactly like salmon, but at half the cost for fresh. Naturally I decided to give it a try and came up with this quick sauce to go along with it. Create individual polenta rounds by letting it cool in smaller serving bowls.
Trout with Grand Marnier
- 2-4 fillets trout
- 2-3 shallots minced (red onions will work too)
- 2 tbsp fresh rosemary chopped fine
- 3 ounces Grand Marnier
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup white wine
- Salt/pepper
Season fish with salt and pepper. Melt two tablespoons butter in large saute pan over medium heat and cook fish until browned on both sides but still rare in center, about four minutes per side. Remove fish from pan and tent with foil to allow it to continue cooking. Add last tablespoon butter, rosemary and shallots to pan and cook until softened. Add wine and deglaze pan. Reduce the wine by half then add Grand Marnier. Reduce sauce again and serve fish on top of polenta drizzled with the sauce.
Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide 
I switched to trout last summer on the recommendation of a friend.. it is much lighter and buttery in flavor I thought.. I am always looking for a new fish recipe since trying to eat healthier and I know I’ll be trying this one after the Christmas turkey!! Merry Christmas!! xoxo
Looks gorgeous and the proportion of fish to polenta looks absolutely perfect for me!
love trout, especially fresh trout. will definitely be trying this out.
Perfect portion of polenta! 😀
Love trout, and this sounds delicious served on a bed of polenta, I often do individual little servings of polenta, I also use my silicone cupcake molds they work wonderfully, add a few drops of water before placing the polenta in mold. A wonderful dinner treat!
Did I miss something here Rufus? We on the west coast call a very pink fleshed, salmon-esque trout Steelhead. Are we talking about the same fish? If so, we love it too, and this looks delicious.
Here in Arkansas we have colorful names for things. Our favorite restaurant calls catfish Mississippi sole.
Oh my, oh my.. this Steel-cut trout looks absolutely amazing. I definitely have to make this after the holidays. And you know.. Coltrane definitely caused a lot of trouble over at my blog today lol. Tell him he was the best 🙂
Adore trout – in fact we live not so far from a town called Riofrio which has river trout and farmed trout and is also famed for its Sturgeon (for caviar) .. but we can´t afford the caviar. Another stunner Greg but do hope you filled up with bread, a starter and dessert due to that measly portion of polenta!
We are partial to salmon on the left coast but this great!
Beautiful presentation and flawless taste as always!
Heh, I’d never heard of this kind of trout – just looked it up. Apparently steelhead trout and rainbow trout are the same thing!
– who’d-a-thunk it? I wouldn’t agree they taste the same. I think trout tastes way better than salmon. Much more delicate than salmon – I always try to have that whenever it’s possible, but the world seems obsessed with salmon these days alas 😦
We have a lot of trout here, and this wasn’t like what we’re used to. Trout fishing is big in the rivers, but since we don’t fish we’ve only had it a few times from local waters.
Sounds and looks fantastic – never thought of pairing polenta and fish before – delicious!
🙂 Mandy
WOW! How can we stay without eating this one… Seems so beautiful. Thanks and Love, nia
Salmon and grand mariner together — what could be better? Man this sounds great!
I’ve never tried steel cut trout, but I do love salmon so I’m sure I would love this too. I have to admit I am no fan of the polenta! But the presentation is lovely; although the serving size caption is an understatement! 😉
There’s nothing wrong with the portion size that a bigger plate won’t cure. I’ve had steel head but never like this. Your recipe sounds so much better!
Sooooo fabulous! I have not met steel head trout yet but now I must. I love the Grand Marnier addition and served on the polenta is sheer geniusness. Definitely. Have a very happy holiday with Katherine. Peace and happiness being sent your way from Sunny So. Cal.
I’ve recently discovered that I can eat fish! (I think I’ve told you…I’m allergic to shellfish and also have avoided fish for as long as I’ve known of the allergy.) I tried salmon a few weeks ago and survived and enjoyed it. This whole fish thing is new to me…and it’s good to know that this trout tastes similar to salmon at a fraction of the cost! Thanks for sharing!
Wowie that looks good. I’ve never been able to find steel head trout, booo!!! But I bet this would be good with salmon too.
I was surprised, like Spree, to see what I know as Steelhead called this Arkansas name, but boy does the dish look dishy! Scrumptious combination, and no, that’s not too much polenta at all!
Merry Christmas!
I changed the name, because hey if it’s us or the rest of the nation… well, you know!
Awwww, I kind of like that we have different regional names for the same thing–keeps life (and eating) interesting. But hey, a fabulous dish by any other name should taste as sweet! My grandpa was a fisherman and made sure that my not-so-rich parents got supplied with salmon, steelhead and other goodies when he caught them; I didn’t know until years later just how “rich” we were eating, thanks to those care packages. Bet Mom would’ve loved to have this recipe back then! Next time we get up to WA to see the folks I guess I’ll just have to make it for ’em. 🙂
Well, there’s no telling if they just wrote it wrong or I read it wrong. But thanks Kathryn. That sounds fabulous growing up that way.
Love that polenta – did you leave some for anyone else? 🙂
A little mound of polenta! What a great way to serve up a piece of fish or meat. Looks great, man!
Oh this sounds fantastic! I could probably use a recipe like this next week. 😉
Looks incredible! I’d gobble up that entire plate in no time.
Yummy trout! Another great fish dish, Greg. I really am always amazed at all the recipes you and Katherine come up with!
I’m so glad that you mentioned that you changed the name to steelhead…I reread this post 4 times trying to figure out what everyone was talking about. Sounds good by any name that you call it. I hope that the two of you have a wonderful Christmas.
Thanks, Karen. You too.
It looks terrific and Grand Marnier sounds very unusual here. I am not a fan of farmed salmon (frankly, I hate it) and if I have a choice, I would always choose any fish instead. I’m sure I would prefer this trout.
Have you ever had salmon-trout? It’s quite good!
In any case, the fish looks so good. Grand Marnier makes it sound really fancy and I bet it smells incredible when it’s cooking.
Uh, oh. Now I can’t tell if people are teasing me or not. I never have though. Katherine’s dad did plenty of fishing on the C&O, but mostly bass and crappie.
I love the taste of trout! And this looks… so perfectly cooked. I’ve never seen polenta so round too, so cute!
Nice dish! More polenta the better! 🙂 Cheers!
-Jen
i love salmon!! it’s one of my favorite things! Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine!
There is no way that this isn’t good. Great job!
I love trout and polenta (mamaliga in Romanian) separately but have never been able to pair polenta as a starch with a meat/protein dish.
By the way, if you don’t have individual dishes to cool the polenta in, you can let it cool in a rectangular dish until solidified and then use a cookie cutter to cut out rounds or rectangles to serve with your trout. I’ve even seen them breaded in a combination of regular bread or panko crumbs and parmesan cheese with a marinara dipping sauce.
I love steelhead… We get them when dipnetting for salmon sometimes, and it’s always a welcome addition to the catch!
You never cease to amaze me with all your great recipes. This looks so yummy. I need to eat more fish for sure.
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