Georgian Baked Trout with Pomegranate and Walnut Sauce

About This Recipe

Freshwater trout, abundant in Georgia's mountain rivers, is often cooked simply — baked or grilled whole — precisely so it can carry one of the country's signature walnut-based sauces, a family of sauces that also appears in dishes like satsivi. This version pairs baked trout with a smooth sauce of ground walnuts, garlic, pomegranate juice and a touch of ground coriander, giving the mild fish a rich, tangy, distinctly Georgian finish. The fish itself needs little more than salt, a few lemon slices and a hot oven to cook properly; the technique that matters most is not overcooking it, since trout turns dry quickly once it passes from flaky to firm. Scoring the skin lightly helps it cook evenly and lets a little of the sauce's flavor seep in during the final minutes of baking. The walnut sauce, blended until smooth with pomegranate juice for both acidity and a faint natural sweetness, should coat the back of a spoon without being gluey. Poured warm over the just-baked fish and finished with a scatter of fresh pomegranate seeds, the combination reflects how central walnuts are to Georgian cooking, turning a simple baked fish into something distinctly of that country's table.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2whole trout(cleaned, about 400g each)
• 2 tbspolive oil
• 1.5 tspfine sea salt
• 1lemon(sliced)
• 1.5 cupswalnuts
• 3 clovesgarlic
• 0.75 cuppomegranate juice
• 0.5 cupwater
• 0.5 tspground coriander
• 0.25 tspground fenugreek
• 0.25 cuppomegranate seeds(for garnish)

Instructions

1. 1

   Season and stuff the fish

   Score the trout skin lightly on both sides. Rub with olive oil and salt, and place lemon slices inside the cavity of each fish.

2. 2

   Bake the trout

   Bake on a lined tray at 200°C (400°F) for 20 to 25 minutes until the flesh flakes easily at the thickest part.

   Check for doneness at 20 minutes — trout overcooks quickly and turns dry once it passes just past flaky.

3. 3

   Make the walnut sauce

   Blend walnuts, garlic, pomegranate juice, water, coriander and fenugreek until smooth, adding a little more water if needed to reach a pourable, spoon-coating consistency.

4. 4

   Warm the sauce

   Gently warm the sauce in a small pan over low heat, stirring, without letting it boil.

5. 5

   Serve

   Plate the baked trout and spoon the warm walnut sauce generously over the top. Scatter with pomegranate seeds and serve immediately.

Variations

• •

  Use this same walnut sauce over grilled chicken instead of fish, closer to Georgia's classic satsivi preparation.

• •

  Add a pinch of ground marigold (imeretian saffron) to the sauce for a more traditional Georgian aroma.

• •

  Substitute salmon or another firm freshwater fish if trout isn't available.

Storage

Refrigerate fish and sauce separately up to 2 days; reheat the fish gently in a covered dish in a low oven and warm the sauce separately, as it can separate if boiled.

Frequently Asked Questions