French · Authentic-ish French
Truite aux Amandes
387 kcal a serving, against 569 for the traditional version. That is 182 kcal off, or 32%, with 32.5g of protein. Serves 4. 15 minutes.
What the traditional version is
Whole trout dusted in plain flour and fried in a staggering amount of butter until golden. The fish is set aside while even more butter goes into the frying pan, frothing up and browning the flaked almonds. A squeeze of lemon juice and some chopped parsley finish the sauce, which is then poured generously over the fish.
What changed, and what each change costs
Swapping whole trout for salmon and ditching the flour
Trout is great, but salmon is a dense, oily fish that cooks beautifully in a dry frying pan. Because it brings its own fat, I can drop the plain flour dusting entirely and rely on the intense heat to build a crust.
What it costs you. You lose the crispy, floury skin you get from shallow-frying a whole trout in a pool of hot butter. A dry sear just cannot replicate that deep-fried crunch.
100g of butter down to 15g
Drenching fish in melted fat masks the flavour of the actual seafood. I use just enough butter at the very end to bind the lemon juice and the toasted almonds into a glossy dressing.
What it costs you. A sharp dressing, then. Not a rich, heavy sauce, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The dish feels significantly leaner and less luxurious, completely lacking that heavy brasserie richness.
100g of almonds down to 30g, dry-toasted
Almonds are brilliant, but they are incredibly dense. I dry-fry a smaller handful in a bare pan until they go dark and fragrant, rather than deep-frying a massive pile of them in melted dairy.
What it costs you. You get fewer nuts on the plate, and they lack the deep savoury finish that comes from soaking up heavily browned butter.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 569 | 387 |
| Protein | 36.4g | 32.5g |
| Fat | 42.8g | 27.2g |
| Saturated fat | 15.7g | 6.8g |
| Carbohydrate | 11.2g | 2.5g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 6.4g | 8.4g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish French prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. fish, milk, nuts.
The method is in the book
This is a much sharper, fresher plate of food than the brasserie classic. The salmon brings enough natural richness to carry the dish, so you don't miss the enormous puddle of dairy fat. The dry-toasted almonds provide that essential crunch, while the tiny bit of browned butter and lemon juice cuts right through the oily fish. You taste the actual seafood instead of just tasting the fat it was cooked in. It genuinely works better as a quick dinner.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish French, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback