Crab-Stuffed Mountain Trout with Preserved Lemon, Corn and Lobster Succotash

Crab-Stuffed Mountain Trout with Preserved Lemon, Corn and Lobster Succotash
Submitted by Shelley Cooper, Executive Chef, Dancing Bear Lodge and Appalachian Bistro, Townsend, Tenn.
Yield: 4 servings

For the Preserved Lemon: (must be made 3 to 5 days in advance)
6 cups water
6 lemons
4 cups white vinegar
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup pickling spice

Procedure:
• Bring water to a boil in a medium-size pot. Add the whole lemons and cook for 5 minutes. Discard water. Cut lemon into paper-thin slices.
• Bring vinegar, salt, sugar and pickling spice to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
• Transfer lemons and all liquids to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate.

For the Succotash:
1 cup fresh corn off the cob
1 cup cooked fresh black-eyed peas
1 cup roughly cut cooked lobster
4 tbsp. bacon grease
½ cup thinly sliced sweet yellow onions
½ cup diced sweet red peppers
to taste salt and pepper
¼ cup Pernod
few sprigs chervil and yellow pea tendrils, for garnish

Procedure:
• In a large saute pan, melt bacon grease. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add corn, black-eyed peas, lobster and peppers, and cook over high heat for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Turn off heat and add Pernot, salt and pepper.

For the Crab-Stuffed Trout:
4 whole 8-oz. fresh trout, headed (if you choose), gutted, rinsed and patted dry
6 + 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
to taste Kosher salt and white pepper
8 slices preserved lemons, roughly chopped
¼ cup combination torn tarragon and basil
½ cup fresh domestic lump crab
orange and lemon to zest, for garnish

Procedure:
• Set oven at 400º F.
• Mix 2 tbsp. soft butter with crab, lemons, herbs, salt and pepper, and evenly stuff each trout with crab mixture.
• Melt 6 tbsp. soft butter in a cast-iron pan. Over medium heat, cook trout 4 to 5 minutes per side. If necessary, finish cooking the trout in the oven to prevent skin from getting too dark.
• Use a microplane to zest orange and lemon over the top of the fish after plating.