Costco had very nice-looking steelhead trout filets the other day, so while I stood in the aisle next to the fish, I pulled out my smart phone and pulled up the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s watch list. It said that farmed steelhead trout were a Best Choice (or whatever their highest rating is), so I went ahead and brought some home. I’d never cooked steelhead trout before, but hey, fish is fish, right?

But as I browsed the internet looking for recipes, I felt increasingly dissatisfied. I didn’t want to go the rosemary & lemon route and I wasn’t going to challenge my grill skills with fish filets. I can grill steaks, hamburgers, and chicken just fine but I don’t have a fish grate (or whatever those things are called), and my success (lack of) with fish has not made me eager to keep trying. But I didn’t want any of the recipes I found.

So I made my own.

I made a marinade of olive oil, soy sauce, sriracha, and the zest and juice from a whole lime. Measurements were entirely arbitrary except for the lime: I did the lime first, added enough soy sauce to cover the zest, added a couple of swirls of sriracha and then enough olive oil to bind them all together when mixed. I marinated the fish in it using a plastic bag, so I could easily rotate and make sure it was thoroughly covered, for about an hour, maybe a little longer, turning it a couple of times.

I pre-heated a pan on medium high (7 on my stove). I let it pre-heat for several minutes because I wanted the pan hot enough that the marinade would cook instantly and become a barbecue-ish glaze. On a lower heat or a cooler pan, it might have flowed off the fish. I put a little bit of olive oil in the pan, just enough to make a nice shimmering surface. I put the filets in, skin side up first. I flipped them after a couple of minutes but they were nice fat filets so I had to flip them again before they were through. I’d say they were in the pan maybe six or seven minutes total.

Along with the trout, we had salad of organic mixed greens, red onion diced fine, chopped sugar-snap peas, cherry tomatoes and feta.

C took a picture, so I’ll post it later if it turned out. But it was incredibly good, definitely worth repeating, and extremely creatively satisfying!