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Last night was the final night of our visit from Pere's parents. We decided to cook in one more time, and invited our friends Moody and Catherine over to join us.

I was really in the mood for seafood, especially because I had been eating fairly heavy all week. In the end, I decided to try to somewhat replicate the Truite aux Amandes I had at Bouchon Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Instead of pan roasting the trout, however, I decided I was going to grill it.

I picked up 6 whole rainbow trout from AJ's Fine Foods, a local "gourmet" grocery here in Chandler. They have great meat, fish, and produce, but it tends to be a bit over priced. I save shopping there for special meals, or when I can't seem to find what I want elsewhere. I'm lucky I got there when I did as I needed 6 trout, and that's all the fishmonger had ordered for the day!

To complete the recipe, I needed to also pick up some haricots vert and sliced almonds. I had everything else I needed at home. The complete meal would consist of the trout with almonds and haricots vert, served with a side of preserved lemon polenta.

The trout was very simple to make. They had already been cleaned and fileted at the market, all that was left was to sprinkle some salt on each fillet and rub the outside of each fish with some olive oil. 15 minutes on the grill over indirect medium heat was all that it took. I grilled each side of the whole trout for about 7 and a half minutes each. If I were to do it again, though, I would open each fish and cook both sides at once, skin side down (I'll get to why in a second).

To finish the trout, I planned to top them with the sliced almonds, haricots vert, and brown butter. To make the brown butter, I cooked about 12 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium heat, spooning the solids off the top. After about 6 minutes, I added 3/4 cups of the almonds to the butter and continued to saute for about another 4 minuted, being careful not to burn the butter or the almonds.

Meanwhile I brought a pot of water to a boil and tossed in the beans. I let them cook for 3 minutes before moving them to a strainer. I then put them in a large bowl and added 3/4 of the remaining brown butter, poured off from the pan along with about 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon or so of salt and tossed to coat.

The preserved lemon polenta recipe came from Ming Tsai and consisted of sauteing 1/4 cup shallots and 2 tablespoons minced ginger in 1 tablespoon of butter, adding to that 3 cups of polenta, 1/2 cup of diced preserved lemons, 3 cups chicken stock, 3 tablespoons butter, and salt and pepper to taste. The whole mixture went in a 400 degree oven (covered) for an hour.

To plate the trout, I opened each one up and laid it on a plate butterfly style, so that each filet was facing up with the head still attached. I had a bit of difficulty with a few of the fish as I had grilled each side of the fish individually while the fish was closed, resulting in a few of them being fused back together. Nothing I wasn't able to fix by sliding a knife up between the fillets. On top of each trout, I spooned about two tablespoons of the almond/brown butter mixture, and toped that off with the haricots vert. I served the polenta from the pot in which it had cooked.

One note on the polenta. When I was browsing through the store, I was trying to decide whether to pick up more cornmeal in case I didn't have enough at home. While looking at the various varieties, I noticed that different manufactures had different cornmeal to liquid ratios listed. The polenta I ended up cooking came out a bit drier than it should have. The next time I try it, I'm going to have to compare the liquid volume called for in my recipe with the liquid volume recommended by the manufacture. I think my recipe could have used another 1/2 cup of stock or so.

We had several bottles of un memorable wine with the meal, until I popped open a bottle of Chateau St. Jean 2001 Chardonnay that Moody and Catherine had brought with them. It was fantastic! It had a very buttery mouth feel that was bursting with pear and honeysuckle and went really well with the trout. I'm going to have to add this one to my list of wines to try again. I had been getting tired of whites lately, but this one has definitely grabbed my attention.

For desert, we had sliced fresh strawberries that had been soaked in some amaretto, served over purchased pound cake with homemade amaretto whipped cream. Nice, light, and simple.