RECIPE: Brighton's Salt Room shares recipe for chalk stream trout - asparagus, broad beans, Champagne sauce

A Salt Room favourite and a dish to impress, this chalk stream trout recipe is surprisingly simple and a complete delight to the tastebuds. Perfect on a summer’s evening, with a perfectly paired glass of sparkling wine, we’d recommend a Chablis Sancerre Lomond Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling to compliment the champagne sauce, it’s a really clean tasting dish that has indulgence, flavour, and freshness in equal quantities.

For the Champagne Sauce

● 3 Shallots

● 2 Fennels

● 2 Crushed Garlic Cloves

● 1 Branch of Thyme

● 75cl Champagne

● 50cl Fish Stock

● 20cl Double Cream

Method

Slice the shallots and fennel and cook slowly on a medium heat in a pan with no coloration, add your garlic and thyme Reduce by ¾ and add the champagne (keeping about 5cl for the seasoning at the end.) Reduce by half and add the double cream.

Reduce again by half, then blitz everything, and pass it through a chinois or sieve. Make sure the sauce is of a good consistency, otherwise cook it for a little longer. Season with salt, sherry vinegar and the remaining champagne.

For the Gremolata

● 4 Parsley sprigs

● 3 Dill Springs

● 10g Baby Spinach

● 1 Shallot

● 2 Nori Sheets

● 1 Kombu Sheet

● 20ml Olive Oil

● Sherry Vinegar to taste

Method:

Blitz everything into a chunky paste

For the Trout

● 130g Trout

● 4 Asparagus

● 60g Shelled Broad Beans

● 2ml Olive Oil

● 6g Butter

Add your broad beans to a pan of boiling water for two minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool them, then use your nails to break open each bean and remove the tough skin. Boil a pan of water and drop in your asparagus and cook for 3-5minutes.

Cook the trout fillet, skin-side down, for 2 minutes, then carefully flip with a thin wide spatula. Cook for another minute until medium rare. Warm up the asparagus with a bit of melted butter and add one teaspoon of the gremolata mix. Warm up the broad beans with a bit of the gremolata mix.

Put the broad bean mix on the bottom of the plate, then place the trout on top. Cut the asparagus in half and place a few on top and around the plate, then add the champagne sauce and enjoy.

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