The Best Thing I Ate Last Week

The genesis of this meal began, as most in our household do, at the farmer’s market. Des Moines has a great farmer’s market (to which I plan to one day devote an entire entry) that we attend almost every Saturday morning. Last time there we saw that one of our favorite stands, Cleverly Farms, was selling squash blossoms. I’d never eaten a squash blossom before, or any other kind of flower to my knowledge, but Stacia was excited and told me we had to get some so I could try them.

Squash blossoms are somewhat strange looking, several-inch long green pods that flare out with bright yellow petals at the end. They weigh almost nothing, and surely need to be filled with something to make any sort of substantial dish. We asked for a bag of blossoms, which we received along with a recipe sheet for a means to prepare them – stuffed with cheese, battered and fried. Perhaps not the most nutritious preparation, but it certainly sounded tasty.

We do make a point to eat one vegetarian meal per week, but as unsubstantial as the blossoms felt, it seemed a better choice to pair them with something else than to have them go it alone. Seafood jumped out to me as a nice pairing, so we decided to go that way. Fish choices are sometimes an area of consternation in our household (more on that at a later date perhaps), but I had recently spotted fresh rainbow trout in the seafood case at the local Hy-Vee and lobbied hard for its inclusion with the squash blossoms.

Trout is strangely less popular than salmon, despite the fact that they are very closely related. I’d tried it for the first time on a trip to Virginia and found it very tasty, which has continued to be the case every time since. Most is farmed in the Northwest US or Canada, but it’s done responsibly and generally does not negatively impact the local ecosystems. In my book, trout is a good fish.

A quick perusal of the Food Network’s site got us a good recipe for grilled trout, courtesy of Bobby Flay. There was the meal. Grilled trout with lemon-parsley butter, served with ricotta and parmesan stuffed squash blossoms. With a bottle of Gloria Ferrer (our favorite winery from our honeymoon in Sonoma) champagne chilling in the fridge, everything was ready to go. And a good thing, too, because by the time we had done all of the planning and shopping, we were really hungry!

Stacia and I usually cook as a team, and in this case with two separate items to be prepared, Stacia took charge of the blossoms while I wrangled with the fish. Stacia combined the cheeses and some spices, filled the blossoms with the mixture, and started dredging them in flour, egg and masa harina. We got a pan of oil hot, and as the battered blossoms were ready, they were dropped in and started a-sizzling. It looked like a lot of gooey fun, but I had bigger fish to fry. Or grill, as the case may be.

Knowing that the recipe was written by Bobby Flay, I knew it would call for grilling. I’m still not quite as comfortable with the full-size grill as I am with the George Foreman version, so I decided to go with George. Got him plugged in and heated while I brushed the trout with some olive oil using our brand-new pastry brush. Yeah, it’s seriously been like 6 years of cooking for ourselves, and we just now got a pastry brush. We’re a little silly sometimes.

While that was getting ready, I made up the lemon-parsley butter, which was way easy. Throw lemon zest, lemon juice and chopped parsley in a bowl with some butter and mash it all together with a spoon. Seriously, that was all I had to do. Bobby recommended chilling it for an hour before serving, but there was no way we were going to wait that long on everything else, so it got maybe 20 minutes but seemed no worse for it.

I had a diabolical plan for using the George to replicate what Mr. Flay was going for on his grill. He called for grilling skin side down for a longer time to get the skin crispy, then flipping just to cook through. I have mixed feelings on eating fish skin, crispy or otherwise, but I thought I should try to make it that way and decide whether or not to eat the skin if it turned out

Anyway, my plan was to not make use of the George’s capability of cooking two sides at once. I’d leave the top open while I grilled the skin side, then flip it towards the end of the cook time to finish the rest. First problem was that Stacia was already frying squash blossoms before George was hot, so I didn’t get it as preheated as I think you’d need to crisp up the skin. I was in a hurry so I just threw the fish on and got it cooking. After a few minutes of that, I carefully slid the flipper underneath and was shocked to discover the skin was getting a little crispy!

Unfortunately, the flipper was also wanting to dig into the crispy skin and tear it off, so a little improvisation was necessary. I decided to keep the fillet skin-side down, and close the grill plates for the last few minutes to cook the top side. I figured that was basically the same idea, cooking the skin side for a little bit longer. After that had gone for a few minutes, the fish was ready and Stacia’s blossoms were just finishing up, too. We put half the trout on each plate, topped with lemon-parsley butter, and placed half of the blossoms alongside. With a glass of champagne, a plate of fresh food and a nice breeze on the deck, we sat down to enjoy our dinner.

Everything turned out to be very tasty, although the fish skin didn’t crisp all the way through. It was a little crispy on the outside, but turned to a skinlike texture closer to the meat, so we didn’t try to eat it. No great loss, since I wasn’t sure I would’ve even if it had turned out. The rest of the trout was great. The meat was perfectly flaky, and the sauce of fresh lemon and parsley really made it pop. Stacia said it tasted very fresh, and I think that’s a good word to describe the result. And the squash blossoms were neat, kind of a ricotta-parmesan fritter. The blossom itself didn’t have too much of a flavor, but the breading turned out great with a nice little crunch on the outside, and a nice savory filling within. The two really went well together, and turned out to be the best thing I ate last week.