Trout Almondine (Forelle Müllerin)
Fish & Seafood, Swabian

Trout Almondine (‘Forelle Müllerin’)

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Crispy fish skin is spectacular. It is achieved by dusting the fish with flour before pan-frying it. This preparation method is called miller-style (‘Müllerinart’ in German). British and American people seem to associate this way of preparing fish with France because this dish is commonly referred to as trout meunière in the English-speaking hemisphere. I don’t know what is particularly French about this preparation method because it is common all over Western Europe. If you add some fried almonds to the fish, then trout meunière becomes trout almondine.

In Northern Germany, they often fry a piece of plaice filet in butter. In France, they go crazy for sole meunière. And in Southern Germany, we use river fish to prepare this dish. The best ones to use are either trout or arctic char. The best thing about using a whole fish is that the skin goes ultra-crispy. There’s hardly any better way to enjoy a freshly caught trout.

Don’t be afraid to add plenty of butter when frying the fish and almonds. Yes, this dish is a bit fatty but it is tasty. And the fish meat is incredibly moist because the crispy skin protects it from drying out when we fry it in the pan.

Dusting the trout with flour
Frying the trout almondine in plenty of butter
Frying the almonds in butter

I always reserve a few almonds because I like to garnish the trout with partly fried and partly fresh almond slices. When you fry the almonds, be very careful as they can burn very quickly in the hot butter. It takes a few seconds for them to go from golden brown to burnt.

Traditionally, trout almondine is served with plain potatoes. In Germany, fish is somehow associated with potatoes as a side dish. I don’t know why that is. It would be weird to eat trout almondine with spätzle or noodles if you don’t have any sauce on the side. But I often think a baguette on the side would be great to soak up the almond butter.

2 Comments

  1. Hallo Tim, My father was an avid trout fisherman and we ate it my whole youth. The reason always given to me as to why it was accompanied by boiled potatoes (Saltzkartoffeln) was to help wash down any errant fishbones that may get stuck in the throat.

    • Thanks Andreas! Sounds very interesting. I had never heard of that but you might be onto something.

      It must’ve been amazing to eat all that fresh trout from your father. Trout that has been caught just a few hours ago is always the best, especially in spring where the water in the river is cold.

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