Wild Rice Stuffed Trout










Ingredients:
• 1 cup uncooked wild rice
• 2-1/2 cups hot water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup chopped water chestnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon chopped stuffed green olives
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 small drawn trout, about 1/2 pound each

Method:
Rinse and drain rice. In 3-quart saucepan, combine rice, water and salt. Heat to boiling, stirring one or two times. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, 40 to 50 minutes, checking one or two times to be sure rice is not sticking. Add a few tablespoons water if necessary. Set aside.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan. In small skillet, cook and stir water chestnuts, green onions, and olives in butter over medium heat for 2 minutes. Stir into rice.

Place trout in prepared pan. Stuff with wild rice. If desired, brush fish with 2 tablespoons melted butter before baking. Bake until fish flakes easily at backbone, about 20 minutes.

Notes:
I like to make recipes the first time just as the recipe is written. In this case, I did make a couple small changes. First, I lightly salted the trout inside and out prior to adding the stuffing. Second, this recipe was just calling for bacon strips to be laid on top before baking. I dressed that up a bit with a little paprika as well. I would do the same making this recipe again.

We really enjoyed this recipe. The fish were fresh and tasty and the wild rice stuffing had a great, buttery flavor. I only had two trout, but enough stuffing for four fish. The stuffing didn’t really hold together in the cavity but that was no problem. Jill liked the little bit of olive in the stuffing.