Trout Chambord
Source: Anonymous, 1920
History
This recipe appears as TRUCHAS A LA "CHAMBORD" in La Mejor Cocinera, Recetas de Cocina, an anonymous Spanish home cookbook issued by Editorial Calleja of Madrid (the Gutenberg author field reads 'Calleja', but Calleja was the publishing house/editor, not the recipe's author). In the book, the trout is skinned on one side and combined with tocino (cured pork fat) and cooked truffles, laid in a gratin dish over thinly cut vegetables, moistened with lard and red wine, and baked; it is then dressed with a sauce made from its cooking liquid and garnished with crayfish, truffles and chopped mushrooms (setas). The name 'à la Chambord' is a classical French culinary style denoting an accompaniment of small pieces of fish, mushrooms, truffles, crayfish and croutons, and this recipe's crayfish/truffle/mushroom garnish follows that pattern. In grander French cooking the style could become extremely elaborate — the Victorian salmon version is described as 'one of the most elaborate and fussy dishes of Victorian French cuisine' — but the version recorded here is a comparatively plain home-kitchen adaptation for trout. Beyond the recipe text and the meaning of the style name, the record does not document who created this particular version, when, or any social meaning attached to it.
Ingredients
- trout
- bacon (tocino)
- truffles
- vegetables
- lard (manteca)
- salt and pepper
- red wine
- mushrooms (setas)
- crayfish (cangrejos)
Instructions
- Clean the trout and remove the skin from one side. Mix the trout flesh with diced bacon and cooked, chopped truffles.
- Arrange thinly sliced vegetables in the bottom of a baking dish. Place the prepared trout on top. Baste with melted lard, season with salt and pepper, and top with slices of bacon. Moisten with red wine.
- Bake in the oven until cooked through.
- Meanwhile, prepare a garnish of cooked truffles and mushrooms (setas). Make a sauce from the cooking liquid of the trout.
- Place the cooked trout on a serving platter. Arrange the truffle and mushroom garnish around it, along with whole crayfish. Pour a little sauce over the fish and serve the rest in a sauceboat.