Pan-Fried Trout with Almonds

The smell of butter turning brown in a hot pan. That's where this starts. Not with a recipe, not with a plan, but with a piece of fish, a knob of butter, and the fifteen minutes between getting home and sitting down.

Trout with almonds is borrowed from the French and we've never given it back, which tells you something about how good it is. A river fish, simply fried, the skin gone tight and golden, then a scatter of flaked almonds toasted in the same butter until they catch and turn the colour of autumn leaves. A squeeze of lemon. Some parsley if you've got it. That's the whole thing. We're only making dinner.

I buy trout when I see it looking bright-eyed and firm at the fishmonger's. It's not a fish that needs a plan. It needs butter, attention, and a hot pan. The almonds were the French addition, and they were right: the sweetness of the nut against the clean, mild flesh of the fish is one of those combinations that feels inevitable, as if someone should have thought of it sooner.

I wrote it down in the notebook years ago. Just: trout, almonds, brown butter, Tuesday. I've cooked it dozens of times since and the note still holds. Some meals don't need more words than that.