Rainbow Trout / a Celebration of Violet

Rainbows are one of my granddaughter's favorite things. She also loves trout. She is also a fan of the color Violet.

She then, is the inspiration for this Instructable.

Step 1: Items You Will Need

A Rainbow Trout

A violet cabbage

A violet onion

Violet potatoes

Violet grapes

Violet skinned garlic

Violet vinegar

Violet'ish salt

Violet Juice or wine

Violet sage flower sprigs

French Tarragon

Black Pepper

Sugar

Mayonnaise

Olive oil

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

Food Processor

Instant pot pressure cooker

Cookie tray

Large mixing bowl

Small bowl

Tin Foil

Plastic wrap

Spatula

Oven

Sharp knife

Fork

Wine glass

Serving platter

Step 2: Rainbow Trout

Rainbow Trout is a beautiful fish. It has a delicate flavor profile that takes on seasonings quite well. Its easy to find these days. Most grocers carry it as a staple, if they have a seafood department. This one was purchases at Zehrs

Step 3: Violet Cabbage

With only two of us eating this week I only used 1/2 the cabbage. It gets cut into smaller chunks then chopped in the food processor. The white core goes into the compost. The diced cabbage goes into your mixing bowl to make way for processing the onion.

Step 4: Violet Onion

As with the cabbage only use half the onion. Cut off the nasty bits and root. Cut it into chunks and process in the food processor. Add the diced onion to the cabbage.

Step 5: Coleslaw Sauce

Mix together one cup of mayo, two tbsp of sugar, two tbsp vinegar as well as one half tsp salt.

Step 6: Mix Up the Slaw

Pour in the sauce and mix evenly. Have a taste to see if you want to add anything. Now cover and refrigerate until plating time.

Step 7: Cook Potatoes

These beautiful little potatoes cook for 5 minutes on a steamer rack over 1 cup of water in the instant pot. Once they are done drizzle them with olive oil and set aside.

Step 8: Preheat Oven

Preheat your oven to 400 F

Step 9: Go Out to the Herb Garden

Its so nice to have fresh herbs right out the back door. If you don't have sage and french tarragon in your garden you should plant them. They are both prolific perennials. Unlike some others these two never die in the winter. We get some nasty cold here now that global warming has kicked in. Oddly enough we can now get long stretches of -35c. That's around -22f I think. When its that cold the conversion is meaningless. These herbs come back every spring.

You will need 4 decent size flowering sage stems and ten tarragon stems the same length as the trout. A couple smaller pieces of each as well to garnish the plate with.

Step 10: Time for the Garlic

Three cloves should do it. This depends on the strength of your garlic. This past year ours was fairly mild. Lucky we kept lots back for our own use. Slice off the hard end and peel them. Cut them into at least three lengthwise slices. They are only cooking for 15 minutes, so too thick, and they will be raw in the middle.

Step 11: Stuff the Trout

Now slide the garlic slices into the belly of the beast and add a sprig of tarragon. They were cut long so fold it in half.

Step 12: Set Up Your Baking Pan

Lay out ample foil on your pan and wipe it down with olive oil. Now make a bed of tarragon four pieces should do the trick.

Step 13: Add Trout to the Tray and Season

Now carefully lay the trout on top[ of the tarragon bed and season with salt and pepper.

Step 14: Top, Cover and Bake

Now cover with the remaining four sprigs of tarragon. Pull up the edges of the foil and roll them down enclosing the trout on the top and both ends to hold in the flavor and moisture. Now put it into the 400 F oven for 15 minutes.

Step 15: She Loves Me She Loves Me Not

Of course she loves me, you just can't pull petals from flowers without that rhyme popping into your head. Pull the purple part of the sage flowers and put them into a small bowl. They will be sprinkled over the potatoes and fish when it gets plated.

Step 16: Pour a Glass of Violet Goodness and Grab Some Grapes

The french side says violet so I must show it first. Purple is just so un-violet sounding.

Wilipedia does explain why there is a difference in the two.

The grapes will cleans the pallet after the meal is complete.

Step 17: Remove From Oven, Plate and Serve

Remove the trout from the oven and carefully open the foil pouch. There will be steam and steam can burn you badly so take care. The oil and the tarragon should have kept the fish from sticking to the foil. Still, go slow while moving the tarragon and placing the trout on the platter. I had a small piece of the tail stuck to the foil, had I not gone slowly and missed this I could have torn the trout in half. It is very breakable at this point. Now once the trout is on the platter slide the garlic out using a fork, add a scoop of coleslaw, put some potatoes in place, decorate with some grapes and garnish with the fresh Violet sage and Tarragon sprigs. We also found a few violet chive flowers and added them as well. Lastly sprinkle the trout, garlic and potatoes with the violet flower petals.

Serve to someone you love.

Step 18: OK I Know

It looked gorgeous displayed for it's portrait didn't it?

But reality sets in, fish has bones.

Bones are bad!

These aren't like the ones in a can of salmon, you can't chew them up.

I used a sharp knife and carefully cut along the back length of the trout.

Then carefully with a fork pulled the first fillet upward and folded it over leaving the bones intact.

Then I lifted the tail slowly removing the skeleton, with help of the fork lifting it out with the head and tail attached.

There were a few bones that stayed behind I must confess. But I'm not a professional.

Thank you for viewing my instructable.

I hope it made you hungry. Also, left with a love of rainbows and the color violet, just like my granddaughter.