Trout Fillets Cooked in Tomato and Cream Sauce with Parsley Rice

Fish and Sauce:

1. Since I had whole trout, I had to fillet them. A bit of a hassle, but doable. If possible, it is better to buy ready-made fillets straight away and only remove the skin from it (possibly debone). Since they are quite thin, they are only used about 3 minutes before serving.
2. To give the sauce a strong tomato flavor, it is first lightly roasted in the oven. To do this, preheat the oven to 200 °. Brush a baking dish with a little olive oil. Halve the tomatoes, mix in a bowl with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and rosemary and then pour into the mold, including the stock, with the cut surface facing up. Pepper and salt lightly and then dust with the icing sugar. Put in the middle of the oven and roast for 25 minutes.
3. When the time is up, take the mold out of the oven and deglaze everything with water. Dissolve the slightly caramelized stock with the help of a wooden trowel and the water (this is where all the aroma is contained) and put together with the tomatoes in a taller, narrow container. Wash and dry the peppers, remove and core off the stalk and cut into coarse strips. Skin the garlic, roughly chop. Add both to the tomatoes in the container and puree everything with the hand blender.
4. Bring the cream and crème fraîche to the boil in a saucepan, stir in the tomato mix and simmer over a mild heat and reduce slightly until creamy. Scatter lemon zest and season again with pepper, salt and sugar. Keep ready.

Rice:

1. Wash rice twice in cold water. Put in a saucepan, add the water and season with salt. Bring the water to the boil, reduce the heat and let the rice simmer very gently in an open saucepan until no more water is visible. Then close the pot with a lid, wrap it in a couple of kitchen towels and put it in bed ….. ;-))) It cooks to the end by itself and you don’t have to keep an eye on it, no matter how long he slumbers there. It does not overcook and is nice and grainy in the end, but not hard and can be easily processed further.

Completion:

1. When the rice is done, put it back on the stove, add the butter, heat it over low heat and mix the two together well. Stir in the parsley before serving. Bring the sauce to the boil again parallel to the rice. Then turn off the stove immediately and put the trout fillets in. They should be completely enclosed in the sauce. Then leave the pot on the hot plate for 1 minute (fillets were cold), but then pull away immediately and let the fish soak in the sauce for only 2 minutes.
2. You can use any fish for this, but the cooking time changes with thicker fillets or pieces (e.g. redfish, cod, saithe). I would leave the saucepan with the hot sauce on the warm, but switched-off hotplate for about 3 minutes after the fillets have been put in, and then let it simmer for about 3 – 5 minutes without heat. If necessary, test a piece to see whether it is glassy and let the lamellae slide apart easily. Otherwise, increase the cooking time for 1 – 2 minutes.
3. Fish, sauce and rice can all be prepared well, cool down and cooked shortly before eating. As a side dish there was only mini peppers lightly fried in olive oil.