Fresh Lake Trout with Roasted Tomatoes & Greens

                                                 - a nice big picture to show off that beautifully seared fish :)

During yet another appointment at the hospital last week, I decided to take a thorough read through the infamous Canadian Food Guide.  That most beautiful rainbow of nutrition. For the most part, I was pleased to see that us Giles' are doing pretty well.  I know that I should still be striving harder to reach those 8-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (boy, that sure does seem like a lot of fruit and vegetables!) but otherwise, we were doing quite well ... That was, until I got to be FISH section.  Did you know that the Canadian Food Guide recommends that all adults eat a MINIMUM of two servings of fish per week? I have to admit, that for probably a good 50 out of the 52 weeks in a year, that is, well, two serving more than I usually eat.  We will occasionally get some nice salmon steaks and, on pub night, I'll have a few bites of Jerms' fish from his fish n' chips, but that's pretty much it. Right there in that doctor's office, I had a revelation. A big fishy revelation. It was time to start adding more fish to our diet. Realistically, I don't know that I can jump full throttle to eating fish two times per week, but I can start with baby steps.  I am now committed to including at least one fish meal into our weekly menu (woot! woot!)

I don't have to tell you that the trip to the fish aisle in our grocery store was unbelievably foreign to me.  I realized then and there that there are so many different kinds of fish that I have never even tried (or heard of for some of them!).  I, like I assume many of you are too, am scared of fish.  Not in the same way that my fish biologist sister is afraid of those "silent, presumably dead on the bottom of the boat floor until they scare your lunch out of you suddenly flapping and thrashing and carrying on" kind of fish, but of the questionably uber fishy tasting kind of fish. Needless to say, I was treading in to unchartered waters.

I figured that lake trout would be a really safe place to start because I so often hear of folks eating trout right out of the water. This fish really was quite delicious. We cooked it up with some lemon and nice, fresh cracked black pepper and oh boy, was it ever yummy. I decided to try a new recipe for roasting tomatoes too - also very yummy. Most importantly though, I think that I have taken that first, most important step of discovery. Bon appétit!

ps - a very special thank you to dad Giles for his wonderful fish tips. I will try to remember to post the fish that he recommends that aren't too crazily priced and aren't too crazily 'fished' in flavour :)

Ingredients:
for the tomatoes:
6 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise (I cut the most rounded spot at the top to help them sit flatter on the pan)
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for one of the baking sheets
1/2 a red onion, chopped lengthwise
pinch sugar
coarse salt and ground pepper

for the fish:
1-3 tablespoons of oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon cut in to wedges
1 tsp. cracked black pepper
2 lake trout fillets (skins on)

Directions
1. Preheat toaster oven to 400. Place tomatoes and onions on a rimmed baking sheet (arrange tomatoes cut side up). Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon oil, sugar, salt, and pepper. Roast until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. You may want to broil for 2-3 minutes at the end. Watch closely.

2. Meanwhile, make your fish. In a large frying pan, heat 1-2 tbs. of olive oil (or more depending on the size of your fish and the amount of oil you want to use). Fry the fish skin down at med-high temperature (you'll be removing the skin later so it does not matter if it gets really dark). Squeeze your lemon juice over the fish as they cook and add the lemons directly to the pan. Season your fish with the pepper. Reduce heat to medium, flip your fish and cook the non-skinned side for 2-3 minutes. Watch it carefully so that it browns up nicely. Fish is done when you can stick a fork in and it starts to flake but still comes out clean and easily. Remove skin from fish before serving (we had to cut ours off with scissors!).

4. Serve fish with your tomatoes and a nice green salad. Make sure you put some additional lemon slices on your plate for freshly squeezing juice as you eat. Fish will probably need some salt to bring out the flavour. Enjoy!

         And here's a close up of those yummy roasted tomatoes. Mmmmm.