Pan-Fried Trout with Almonds and Green Beans

Trout amandine is a French classic that is usually swimming in butter. This version uses a little butter only to toast the almonds, which is where the flavour comes from. Dry the skin well and leave the fish alone in the pan, and the skin will crisp without sticking.

Dinner

Serves 2

Pan-fried trout fillet with crispy skin topped with toasted flaked almonds, served with green beans, new potatoes and a lemon wedge

Ingredients

2 skin-on trout fillets (about 140g each)
300g new potatoes, halved if large
200g green beans, trimmed
25g flaked almonds
10g butter
2 tsp olive oil
1 lemon: juice of half, the rest in wedges
A small handful of parsley, chopped
Salt and black pepper

Method

Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 to 18 minutes until tender. Add the green beans for the last 4 minutes, then drain both.
While the potatoes cook, pat the trout skin completely dry with kitchen paper and season both sides. A dry skin is the difference between crisp and stuck.
Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Lay the fillets in skin side down and press them flat with a fish slice for 10 seconds so the skin does not curl.
Leave them alone for 3 to 4 minutes, until the flesh has turned opaque about three-quarters of the way up. Turn them over for 1 minute, then move them to warm plates, skin side up.
Turn the heat down to medium. Add the butter and almonds to the pan and stir for 1 to 2 minutes until the almonds are golden and the butter smells nutty. Watch them closely: they go from golden to burnt quickly.
Take the pan off the heat and add the lemon juice and parsley. It will sizzle.
Serve the trout with the potatoes and beans, spooning the almonds and pan juices over the top, with lemon wedges on the side.

Why it works

Trout counts as an oily fish, alongside salmon, mackerel and sardines. UK advice is to eat at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily, and a portion is about 140g, exactly what each fillet weighs here. Most rainbow trout sold in the UK is farmed in freshwater.

Oily fish is one of the few natural food sources of vitamin D, alongside eggs and red meat. It is still hard to get enough from food alone in autumn and winter, which is why the NHS suggests everyone in the UK consider a daily 10 microgram supplement in those months. How vitamin D relates to hormones is covered in does vitamin D raise testosterone?

A serving has about 36g of protein and around 500 calories with the potatoes. The almonds bring vitamin E, magnesium and some extra protein, and the fat they add is mostly the unsaturated kind.

For women around menopause, protein and oily fish both matter for keeping muscle and bone: see bone health after menopause. If you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, the advice is to have no more than two portions of oily fish a week.

For another oily fish dinner, try the salmon traybake with new potatoes and broccoli, or smoked mackerel kedgeree.

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