January 10th: Roasted Rainbow Trout with Prune-Mushroom Sauce & Roasted Cauliflower "Rice"

Wow, it has been a whole week since my last post. Time flies when you are not cooking at home.

I am thrilled to be back in the kitchen, and revamping my January detox diet (tomorrow night's Nigella Lawson meal not included!). Luckily for me, detox is the name of the game in most January publications, so I have a world of healthy meals at my fingertips. First up is trying to get back on my "fish once a week, vegetarian once a week" mantra for healthy cooking. I love fish but don't have a heap of recipes in my keeper book, and seeing as I have a mental block against repeating meals too close to one another, I must seek out new fishy items.

Therefore, in spite of my doubts, I forged ahead with a "superfood" supper from January 2011's Chatelaine: Roasted Rainbow Trout with Prune-Mushroom Sauce & Roasted Cauliflower "Rice."

I have my doubts about food described within quotation marks. Why say "rice" when it is not rice? (That's a rhetorical question. I know the answer. I have just explained to you what rhetorical means. I must stop typing.)

The trout recipe calls for prune juice, which, as far as I can tell, comes in 2L jugs only. Not willing to buy so much juice and then have to throw it out (and not harbouring any notions about actually drinking it), I upped the amount of prunes in the recipe, and used water to compensate. This took me back to O's baby days, when I used to boil up dried prunes to feed her, to help her system along. Man, she loved those prunes.

These prunes were no exception. Although Greg and I finished the meal with a mutual, "Meh," Olivia ate all of hers plus some of ours, plus some more fish as I was packing up leftovers. She loved the prune sauce. In fact, the prune sauce was delicious, but a fair amount of work, which is to its own detriment, as the recipe now resides in my recycling bin. However, G and I agreed it was worth trying out, as it was a healthy meal. Trout is a yummy fish; we should have that more often.

The "rice" (cough ground-up cauliflower cough) was fine, but we none of us liked the capers. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian describes capers as the anchovies of the vegetarian world. When I told Greg this, he responded, "If, by anchovies, you mean salty and nasty, yes, I can see that." I don't know why I don't just give up on capers. We never like them. I would rather have had the roasted cauliflower on its own, not ground up, with a touch of s&p. Alas.