Whole Roasted Stuffed Fish

Elegant dish for your holiday table.
Don’t be afraid that it would be difficult to skin the fish!  This is done easily and quickly if you lightly salt the whole fish and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

I always ask the fish guy at the store to clean the fish.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole rainbow trout, 1.5 to 2 lbs.
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• 1 tbsp olive oil for sauteeing
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs.  You can use buckwheat flour or cream of wheat or matzo meal.
• 1/4 cup fresh dill (or any other herb you like), finely chopped. 
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Leave the head intact.  With a sharp knife cut the skin close to the head.  Insert your finger (or a knife)  and separate the skin from the flesh going in the direction of the tail.  I find my fingers are the best tool for this job 🙂

• Trim the fins and cut the bone when you reach the tail.  
• Separate the flash from the bones and set the skin aside.  Sorry for my peeled nail polish 🙂

• In a food processor finely chop the fish together with sauteed onions and carrots.  Transfer to a bowl.
• Add some chopped dill or parsley or any other herb of your choice.  Add minced garlic, bread crumbs, salt and pepper and mix well.
• Take the skin and fill it with the mixture that you just made. Do not fill too tight, otherwise the skin may burst during baking.

• Line a cookie sheet with some foil, lay out a line of bay leaves and put your stuffed fish on top of them.

• Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and squeeze some lemon juice on top.
• Bake for 25 minutes in the oven that was preheated to 375F.
• Let it cool a bit, slice it and arrange on a platter.

I didn’t add any eggs to the stuffing as it was our Christmas Eve dinner which requires dishes with no meat, dairy, and eggs.  For any other occasion I would definitely add 1 egg.