Trout Amandine

A gastronomic delight of French Creole cuisine, trout amandine is a simple dish that pairs pan-fried trout with a delicious, buttery, and nutty sauce consisting of brown butter (beurre noisette), almonds, lemon juice, and parsley. Considered a variation on trout meunière, which in turn is itself a variation on the French classic sole meunière, trout amandine also makes use of meunière (meaning miller’s wife in French), a method of cooking that calls for coating food in flour before sautéing it in brown butter with lemon juice and herbs. In this case, the sauce is enhanced with the addition of browned almonds, hence the name trout amandine, from the French culinary term amandine, which refers to a specialty that’s been garnished or prepared with almonds. Also known as trout almondine (almondine being the preferred American spelling), this delicacy is a quintessential and one of the most beloved seafood delicacies in New Orleans. The dish is most commonly prepared with skinless speckled trout (spotted sea trout) fillets instead of whole fish, as is usually the case in traditional French cooking. Trout amandine is typically enjoyed as an entrée in New Orleans’ restaurants, and it is usually accompanied by buttered new potatoes, steamed french green beans, and lemon wedges.