Steelhead Trout - a first for me

Dinner this evening came together so beautifully. I knew I wanted to do something with soba noodles tonight but I wasn't quite sure what. I had on my mind a cold sesame soba dish with some shrimp. But while I was at the market it occurred to me that salmon might be nice tonight. I went over to the fish counter to survey the offerings. I saw what I thought was beautiful wild salmon. Imagine my surprise when the meat counter staff person told me it was steelhead trout. Trout? I thought trout was more of a white fish. I have never seen trout look like salmon before. Take a look at this gorgeous piece of fish. You can see what I mean. I have never had it before. It smelled fresh and looked fantastic so I bought it. No shrimp tonight! It's going to be soy, mirin, ginger, and garlic steelhead trout!

I also intended to make some soup to go along with the main course for dinner. I still had a chicken carcass in the fridge that I roasted recently. So I made a simple chicken stock by simmering the carcass with celery and onions for about two hours.

This is what I ended up with after a couple hours simmering. I strained the broth off and used that as the base of my soup.

Keeping with my Asian inspiration I picked up a fresh daikon radish at the market today. I absolutely love cooked diakon. It is so tasty yet mild. After I strained the chicken stock I placed it back in the pot and added a bunch of large chunks of diakon, lots of chopped garlic, a good amount of grated fresh ginger, soy sauce, a splash of mirin and a tad bit of nuoc mon Vietnamese fish sauce. I let this simmer for about an hour more until the daikon was nice and tender. The soup was perfect garnished with some fresh green onions.

Ok, let me get back to the main dish. Yes, the fish! I bought a 1 pound filet and cut it into 4 oz servings. This was marinated with finely chopped garlic, fresh grated ginger, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and black pepper. I let this marinate in the fridge for about 40 minutes. The soba noodles were the inspiration for everything tonight so I should tell you how I prepared them. I cooked about 4 oz of soba noodles (2 servings) in boiling water for about 8 minutes until they were tender. These were drained and set aside in the colander for a while while I got the fish cooking. I used a hot grill pan to sear the fish on one side for about minuted then I turned it over skin side down. The pan was placed in a hot 400F oven while I finished up the noodles. I think the fish stayed in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.

Let's get back to the noodles. Once I got the fish in the oven I was ready to fry the noodles. I had a wok heated and ready. I coated the noodles with a bit of toasted sesame oil. I had ready some chopped garlic and finely julienned green bell pepper. I added a tsp or so of canola oil to the hot wok and threw everything in together. This was stirred up together and then spread out in the pan to get a little bit crisp. After a few minutes I would stir it up and then spread it out in the pan again. This helped to brown and crisp the noodles. The noodles were placed on the plate and the fish was laid on top. The dish was garnished with fresh sliced scallions.

I must say this turned out better than I expected. The crunchy sesame soba noodles and the juicy mild fish seasoned with ginger were perfect together. I must do this again. To compliment the meal I had a nice California sauvignon blanc.