Making a home + trout two ways

Welcome home.

Hi! We made it to millions of new vaccinations, we made it to being able to see our friends again, we made it to Wednesday.  

It’s Julia, the New York contingent of the Little Fish newsletter team. This month, my partner and I are moving into a new place, and I’m thinking a lot about what makes a home. 

When I first visited my friends Andrea and Josh at their home outside of Burlington, and years later when I first saw Anna and Niki’s house in Echo Park, they had made each of their houses so welcoming I thought: I’m home. There were snacks waiting, a dog who put his head in my lap, hugs, an open bottle, and bathrooms with nice soap.

In more than ten apartments and in three states, we have sought to make homes out of shitty apartments, then slightly nicer apartments, and now a cute little house of our own. And it probably won’t surprise you to read that the moments past places became homes were the moments people were with us — eating, of course, even if we were sitting on the floor with paper plates. 

In an ill-fated apartment in Boston that later burned down, the first meal was with Andrea and Josh — we ludicrously dug out the panini maker and made goat cheese and Trader Joe’s frozen eggplant sandwiches amidst piles of boxes. For the four months we lived there, it was a home.

Then there was the pizza we ordered in our Queens apartment to share with Anna, who’d heroically planned a visit around helping us move. The three of us on the floor, using paper towels as plates — it was a home.

And now we have a new home to make, waiting for a table to arrive so we can gather our people around it. What we need is the first welcoming meal, the one that changes everything, the one that says: Together with our people, this is our home.

I know what I’m making that first night our kitchen is set up: It’s going to be the Passover meal we never got to have. But what I need is a breakfast for the next morning, something I can whip up while my friends lounge around drinking coffee. 

Niki and Annie put together a perfect frittata recipe using smoked trout, and Forrest used the same fish for a trout tonnato. I’m looking forward to making them in the next few weeks, sharing them with my people, and making a new home.

First, a note about Fishwife!

We were lucky enough to receive a few tins of Fishwife’s new tinned smoked rainbow trout to test out this week (if these don’t do it for you, they also have recipes on their own website). The team behind Fishwife (Becca Millstein and Caroline Goldfarb) also sent us over some info you should check out below!

Fishwife’s rainbow trout is raised in pure Rocky Mountain spring water, alongside Snake River in Idaho. It’s brined in extra-virgin olive oil, garlic salt, and brown sugar, and smoked in small batches over alderwood, hand-packed, and canned by a family-run cannery on the central coast of Oregon.

Our rainbow trout:

• is 100% traceable from egg to tin

• is raised without growth hormones, preventative antibiotics, or genetic engineering

• is fed a sustainable, nutrient-rich diet

• has 62 times less mercury than the FDA’s allowable standard

• is the product of responsible land-based aquaculture, a method of raising fish that minimizes the impact of seafood consumption on ocean ecosystems

ALSO…

They’ll be hosting a panel on Aquaculture TOMORROW, THURSDAY, 4/29 at 11:00am PST. Here is the link to sign up!

Smoked trout, potato, and asparagus frittata

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 medium red potatoes
6 stalks asparagus
6 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for dressing herbs
½ white onion, thinly sliced
1 3.5oz can smoked trout, drained (we used Fishwife, and you should too!)
¼ cup parsley, just the leaves picked off of the stem
¼ cup dill, picked from stem
¼ cup chives, cut into 1 in pieces
1 lemon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Add potatoes to a pot of cold, heavily salted water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to a light simmer and cook until tender — about 20 minutes. Drain and cut into ½ inch coins. 

3. Peel the asparagus from about halfway down the stalk. Cut into bite size chunks, about 1½ inches each.

4. Whisk eggs together with a big pinch of salt and set aside.

5. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook until softened and picking up some color, about 3–minutes.

6. Add asparagus to pan and sauté until bright green and al dente, about 1 minute.

7. Add potato pieces and drained trout to the pan, breaking into pieces and distributing evenly. 

8. Pour eggs into the pan, stirring once to loosen fillings from the bottom. Allow to set around the edges, using a spatula to loosen from the sides of the pan if sticking.  

9. Transfer pan to oven and cook until the center is just set, 6–8 minutes.W Remove from oven and place a cutting board or plate over the pan and quickly invert, so the pan side of the frittata is now your presentation side. Let cool slightly.

10. Dress your herb salad with a splash of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cut frittata into wedges and serve topped with herb salad. It also goes great with hot sauce!

Smoked trout tonnato with spring peas and beets 

For the tonnato

Ingredients
1 3.5oz can of Fishwife smoked trout 
1 egg yolk 
1 egg
2 anchovies
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
1 teaspoon of capers 
1 teaspoon Dijon
½ teaspoon Tabasco 
¼ cup olive oil 
½ cup grape seed oil 
Pinch of salt and ground black pepper 

Directions

1. In a blender, add smoked trout, egg, egg yolk, anchovies, lemon juice, capers, Dijon and Tabasco and blend.

2. Mix the olive and grape seed oil together in a small bowl or measuring cup. Slowly stream in blended oil to create an emulsified dressing. If the dressing seems too thick, add a little water. Season with salt and pepper. 

For the salad

Ingredients
2 medium beets
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
1 cup of snow peas, trimmed
1 cup of sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut into thirds
½ cup of English shelling peas, peas removed
1 lemon for juice and zest

Directions

1. Toss beets in olive oil and salt and roast at 350 for about 45 minutes until fork tender. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove skin. Dice into bite sized pieces and let cool to room temperature. 

2. Blanch shelled English peas for 15 seconds in boiling water that has been salted and remove into an ice bath. 

3. Blanch snow peas in salted water for 30 seconds and remove into an ice bath. 

4. In a medium bowl, mix smoked trout tonnato, beets, snow peas, snap peas, and English peas. Season with salt and lemon juice. Zest lemon over the salad as garnish and serve.

If you make a recipe from our newsletter, please tag us in pictures! You can find us on Instagram at @littlefish_echopark. 

Love,
Little Fish