February 13, 2021

Steamed Steelhead Trout

Beautiful, actually quick, healthy, and delicious; what’s not to love.

(Jump to the Steamed Steelhead Trout recipe here.)

(Jump to the Mushroom “Fixed Frame” recipe here.)

I almost didn’t cook dinner this past Wednesday, but I’m so glad I did. First, it was amazingly simple and delicious, and second, I get to share it with all of you! This Steamed Steelhead Trout is one of those dishes whose returns far outweigh the effort.

(Ordinarily I resist getting sucked into things that are too easy with no effort, but I’m happily accepting it here and not feeling lazy for it at all!)

I went out of town last week and the return-trip day was pretty reminiscent of how I used to feel after working long days, like from 8am to 8pm, in the summers, when I’d get off at 8pm, having bustle, bustle, bustled all day but still having an hour’s worth of precious daylight left. On my drive home I’d have all these great aspirations and plans of taking my dog for a long walk, going for a jog for myself in the cool of the evening, and cooking dinner. Only to have completely lost momentum by the time I made the commute home.

This past Wednesday was a little like that for me. I got back into town at 4pm, with plenty of time to get all of my aspirations done, but once I actually got home, I really didn’t want to do any of it. One thing I had to do, was pick up some lettuce to feed my ducks, since I’d already let my friend, Julia, who had been taking care of them, know that I was back.

At the grocery store, since we were there, I was grabbing a few ingredients for some dishes to make over the next couple days, for things that I know, and have down pat, since I didn’t want to plan for anything new and creative at the moment. One of the things that’s easy, reliable and always great is my Salmon Rillettes recipe.

While picking out some Salmon, Elizabeth said, “Hey! Look at how thick this salmon steak is, and how light it is. I can’t decide if it looks already cooked or if it looks like sushi.” It was Steelhead trout. I love trout, but have never ever cooked Steelhead, but this one was beautiful, and we live in the desert, and beautiful fish is a rarity. So I picked one out.

By the time we got home, I fed & cleaned up after the ducks, we unloaded all the mail, so much mail, that had been held by the post office, it was definitely dinner time, and I am generally not a fast cook, so I needed to, if I was going to stick to my resolve, do something I knew.

I already had Salmon Rillettes on my mind, and the first step of that recipe is to steam some fresh salmon steaks for 8 minutes. I did a quick google search and the very first thing that popped up was a little description from the Spruce Eats on the similarities of cooking techniques for Salmon and Steelhead. And that’s where I stopped reading.

So here is a really delightful meal I whipped together with next to no resolve. God meant for you to have this recipe; I can’t not post it.

Steamed Steelhead

You’ll Need:

For the Steelhead

1 Steelhead steak, cut into approximately 4 oz. strips
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

For the Suggested Sides

(quantities listed are for 2 persons; but you can double, triple, halve at will)

For the Mushroom Fixed Frame (…instead of Vol au Vent, get it?)

2 puff pastry scraps
2 tbs + 2 tsp freshly grated Parmesan, divided
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
2-4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
1 pinch Himalayan salt
1 pinch black pepper
2 garlic cloves, roughly minced
1 Tbs fresh thyme eaves

For the Simplest Salad on the Planet

4 large leaves red leaf lettuce, washed, chopped to 1-inch dice
2 Tbs freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Balsamic vinegar & olive oil to taste

The Steelhead literally takes 18 minutes to make: 10 minutes for the water to boil and 8 minutes to cook, and it’s best served immediately. (I say that, but Elizabeth and I both ate the leftover pieces cold with some seedy crackers the next day with lunch and it was amazing, yet again.) But because it’s so quick, I started by making a quick side-dish starch first, my simplified Mushroom Vol au Vent, which I’m calling my Mushroom Fixed Frame.

My freezer tends to have little hoards of frozen chicken pan drippings, pie dough scraps, pesto ice cubes, bone broth ice cubes, and when I’m lucky, puff pastry scraps. I had 3 squares of puff pastry left already cut and with pretty corners trimmed, so I pulled those out first.

(I had these pieces of puff pastry left from making Grand Baby Cakes Oscar Tomato Tart, which I have made so many times; I highly recommend checking out that recipe for a super quick, fancy side dish. I always add caramelized garlic in with the caramelized onions, fyi.)

To make your very own Mushroom Fixed Frame:

Place your puff pastry squares on a baking sheet and allow them to thaw. (This happens by the time you have your sauteed mushrooms. (The baking sheet can be parchment lined or not, the toppings on this don’t really spread, so it will be fine either way, especially if your pan is slightly nonstick.)

Wash, pat dry and slice your mushrooms thin. Heat 1 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. You can add the mushrooms right away, as the fats are heating up. Add salt and pepper to taste. Roughly mince some garlic cloves and add them too. Pluck the leaves from some thyme and add. Preheat your oven to 425˚F .Allow the mushrooms to sauté while your oven preheats, tossing only every now and then and only once the bottoms of the mushrooms and garlic start to brown.

Sprinkle about a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese on your puff pastry squares (or whatever shape they happen to be!)

Once the mushrooms have browned on most sides and smell fragrant with the garlic, spoon them on top of the puff pastry shapes.

Sprinkle with a dab more Parmesan.

Bake at 425˚F for 16-20 minutes, until the puff pastry has browned nicely, and the cheese has toasted slightly.

Steam the Steelhead while the pastries bake.

Wash and pat dry the Steelhead and check for any bones. (I use a pair of fine tweezers for removing fish bones that I clean with white vinegar.)

Fill the bottom pan of a steamer pot with about 3 inches of water and start it boiling on high heat.

Leave the skin on the fish. (This gives a natural barrier between the fish and the foil. If ever trying this steaming pouch technique on another fish or fish without skin, you can make a parchment pouch inside the foil pouch, or simply make a parchment pouch.) Slice the Steelhead into steaks about 3 to 4 oz each. Season each piece with about ¼ tsp Himalayan salt, ¼ tsp Celtic sea salt, ¼ tsp black pepper, and the leaves from a couple sprigs of thyme.

Make foil steaming pouches by rolling the longer edges down together, then rolling the sides tightly. Seal each steak in its own foil pouch.

When your water is at a rolling boil, place all the Steelhead steak packets in the steamer portion of the pot, cover and let steam for 8 minutes.

If you place any of the larger pieces on the bottom of the pot and take a bit of care to arrange them the way you would logs on a fire you are attempting to start, leaving space in between each one, you’ll have perfectly cooked Steelhead steaks in 8 minutes, without a doubt.

Make the World’s Simplest Salad while the Steelhead steams.

Wash and pat dry 2 big leaves of lettuce per person and cut into 1-inch squares. Go right ahead and plate the salad lettuce, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and set the oil & vinegar on the table. Salad = done.

When the pastries are done, turn the oven off and either pull them out or leave them right there until ready to plate, (since it will be time to plate them in seconds,) it doesn’t matter. These are simple.

When the timer goes off for the Steelhead, turn off the burner, uncover the pot, and I can just reach straight in and remove the packets with my hands, but feel free to use a pair of tongs to remove the pouches. Steam will escape while you open them, but these packets do cool off pretty quickly, so try to unwrap and plate them within a couple minutes of their being removed from the pot.

A pie server helped me remove the fish from the skins pretty easily.