Name: Confit of Sea Trout with Caramelized Shallots, Lemon, Olives and Capers
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 1 bay leaf; A pinch of sea salt; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives; Mustard Hollandaise Sauce (see Quick Hollandaise Sauce), to serve; A few black peppercorns, crushed; ½ bunch of fresh tarragon; 600 ml (1 pint) groundnut or cooking oil; 1 tablespoon of fine capers; 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar (optional); Salt and pepper; 1 lemon, quartered; 300 ml (10 fl oz) olive oil; 5 tablespoons olive oil; 1 star-anise; A knob of butter; 12–16 pitted black olives, quartered; 4 × 175–225 g (6–8 oz) sea trout fillet portions, skinned and boned; 1 large lemon, peeled, segmented and sliced; 12 large shallots, cut into 1 cm (½ in) dice

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Fabulous Food

By Gary Rhodes

Published 1997

About

The word confit comes from the French word meaning ‘to preserve’. Most things that are cooked in the confit style are cooked in their own fat and preserved in it. Sea trout doesn’t have its own fat to cook in, but it cooks beautifully when poached slowly in goose fat or a flavoured oil. The oil keeps all of the natural juices in the fish and it certainly doesn’t leave a greasy, oily finish.

Goose fat is the best to cook it in but for this recipe I am using a flavoured oil. Should th