Ingredients:
1 small bulb fennel, very thinly sliced
1 small onion or shallot, thinly sliced
1 Cara Cara orange, thinly sliced
1 lb steelhead trout filets
1/4 teaspoon fennel pollen
salt
freshly ground pepper
fennel fronds
Preheat oven to 325. Lightly oil a 1 1/2-2 quart baking dish (I used a 8×8 inch baking dish). Toss together the fennel, onion/shallot and orange slices on the bottom of the dish. Top with the trout.
Rub the trout with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with fennel pollen, salt pepper, and fronds. Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked through and flaky.
My thoughts:
Steelhead trout is a wonderful, sustainable alternative to salmon. Despite being from the same family as rainbow trout, it looks very similar, has a familiar meaty texture and is just as easy to cook as salmon. It is a bit lighter and softer in texture and not quite as oily thanks to a lower fat content. I haven’t found many recipes for it but I would think that you could sub it in most salmon recipes. Aldi has it pretty frequently for a good price.
Take care to really thinly slice the fennel, I had a few thicker pieces and they werent’ quite tender when the fish was completed. I like using fennel pollen to kick the fennel flavor up a bit but it can be left out (or sub fennel seeds) if you don’t have any on hand.