Smoked Trout and Spinach Bake

3 Michelin Star Chef Christian Jürgens told the reporter that this dish in one of  the 5 best liked ones at home in his family. He uses the freshwater fish, that is smoked locally. 

This kind of fish is not available here in the center of Germany, but a good local sourced trout does the trick too. 

The preparation of the recipe is a bit heavy on dishes. That is a way to know that it comes from a professional kitchen. They do not care about the amout of dirty dishes :-)

One thing I hate are the tiny fish bones. Even after carefully taking the trout apart and taking out the bones, a lot of the fine ones still remained. It is fiddely to eat.

Recipe for 2:

1 smoked trout  ( 180 - 200 g for 2)

300 g baby spinach, 1 shallot, 1/2 lemon

2 eggs, 125 g Ricotta, 50 g goat cream cheese

1 tbsp sunflower oil, 30 ml Noilly Prat, 50 ml chicken stock, 1 clove, 1 juniper berry, 5 black pepper corns, 1 small bay leave, salt and pepper

nutmeg, chili powder

Put the spinach in a colander and pour a kettle of boiling water over it. Let it sit for 5 min, then squeeze out the water. Chop and mix with the chunks of trout. Put that in an oven proof dish, sprayed with some oil. 

Chop the onion and fry them in a small pot in the oil, add the spices and stock and Vermouth and reduce down 50%. Pour trough a fine sieve into a heat proof bowl. Let it cool down a bit.

Separate the eggs and beat the whites to stiff peaks with a little salt.

Drop the yolks in the onion liquid and set it over a pot with boiling water and beat until frothy. Mix in the ricotta and goat cheese and fold in the egg white. Season with nutmeg and chili and pour over the trout and spinach. Carefully mix it without breaking the fish too much.

Stick in the oven for 12 min to set.