Trout in Cream Sauce: Forellen in Rahm

This is based on some German recipes, and in German, Bavarians call it "Forellen in Rahm" (in the plural, see "Word History" below for history of "Forelle" and its English relative).* Bavaria has lots of mountainous areas and streams that provide a habitat for trout. Naturally, you can adjust the recipe for the number of trout and/or to use trout of varying sizes. 

 

Ingredients (for 1 trout cut into 2 fillets): 

1 cleaned, skin on, trout (about 8 to 10 ounces)

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon ground white or black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated carrot

1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley

1 cup cream

2 tablespoons flour

 

Heat the oven to 375 F. In a large oven proof skillet melt the butter on the top of the stove over low heat. Sprinkle the trout fillets lightly with lemon juice, then sprinkle on some salt and white pepper. Lightly sprinkle the trout with flour, then lay the fillets in the melted butter, skin side down, and spoon some of the butter over them. Now sprinkle (lots of sprinkling in this) the fillets with grated carrot and chopped parsley, then carefully add the cream to the skillet without disturbing the seasonings on the fish fillets. Cover the skillet (foil is fine) and put it in the oven until the trout is tender. After about 10 or 12 minutes, remove the lid or foil and spoon some of the cream over the fillets, cover the trout again, but repeat this procedure in about 4 or 5 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes.    

 

 

* For the history of the English relative of the word "Rahm," it is in the "Word History" of this article: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/schnitzel-with-creamy-mushroom-gravy.html

"Trout in Cream Sauce" with boiled (and buttered) potatoes and cottage cheese ...

WORD HISTORY:

Trout-This word for a type of fish is distantly related to "drill" (the noun for a tool to make holes), "drill" (the verb meaning to make holes), "thresh" and "throw," all words from the Germanic roots of English, and to "trite," a word borrowed by English from Latin, and to "turn," a word borrowed by English from Latin, but with some French influences. "Trout" goes back to Indo European "tereh," which had the notion, "to turn, to twist, to rub or wear down during a turning process." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek the verb "trogein," meaning, "to gnaw, to chew (at, on), to munch (on)," and this produced the noun "trṓktēs," meaning, "gnawer, muncher," which was applied to the name of a fish with sharp teeth. Latin borrowed the word as "tructa" as the name for trout-type fish, and this was taken by Latin-based Old French as "truite." Old English borrowed the word from Latin as "truht," and with later influence by French, it became "troute," before the modern version. NOTE: When Old English borrowed "truht," English already had "forn" as the name for trout. It goes back to Indo European "perk," which meant, "spotted, speckled," seemingly used for fish and animals. This gave Old Germanic the noun "furhno," which was the name for the fish, "a trout." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "forn," with the same meaning. Old High German (pretty much the contemporary of Old English) had "forhana," which then became "forhen," and the pronunciation "forhel" (a colloquial diminutive form?), which then became "Forelle" in modern German. Dutch still has "voorn," which means "minnow," but Dutch has "forel" for "trout" (I didn't research it, but it's likely a borrowing from German, or Low German), Old Saxon was the Germanic dialect that remained in what is now northern Germany after some of the Saxons went to Britain, had "furhnia," which then became "vörne," although modern Low German has "Forell" for trout, which was obviously borrowed from German.^

 

^ Old Saxon is the ancestor of Low German, but Low German is not a standardized language, but rather a collection of dialects which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Whether "vörne" (in some form) still survives in any of the component dialects of Low German, I don't know, but the influence of High German (now standard German) was very strong, and "vörne" may have been completely overtaken by "Forell" (as with standard German, Low German capitalizes all nouns in modern times).