...is the trout driving?

Ingredients for trout in wine:

• 4 trouts
• 700-800ml water
• 1l white wine
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• one teaspoon of peppercorn
• two spoons of olive oil
• two teaspoons of salt
• two bay leaves
• two slices of lemon

Sauce:

• a cube of butter
• one spoon of soy oil
• two spoons of flour
• some salt
• 300ml milk
• 150ml sour cream
• a few drops of lemon juice
• pepper

Here we go again with our Solin trout. Medo seems to be completely into a fish menu, so he will give us some advice this time, not just regarding the cooking, but also about catching trout. Feel free to eat something else before this dish and do not even think about driving home afterwards because we are going to soak the trout with a whole bottle of wine.
"It has nothing to do with it, that's a fallacy!" Medo the chef quickly corrected me, adding that the alcohol evaporates during cooking leaving no traces in the system of those who eat the dish. But he also added later: "Actually, there's no guarantee - we have never done a breath or blood test after eating the trout cooked in wine!"
"I don't care, I have to eat no matter what. One of you will drive me home!" I was firm.
We pulled up our sleeves and began work. First we poured 700-800ml of water into a deep pot along with one litre of white wine; we cut up 3-4 cloves of garlic coarsely and put them in the pot, along with a teaspoon of peppercorn. Then we added two spoons of olive oil, two teaspoons of salt, two bay leaves, two slices of lemon, and brought the mixture to the boil. We let half the water evaporate, which took approximately ten minutes. We learned from the cooks at Medo's kitchen that trout should always be added into hot liquid so that the fish retains its proteins.
"Now we can add the trout to the soup," says Medo after everything had boiled, explaining that the trout doesn't need to be 'swimming' in this soup of water and wine. We left it to cook for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, we started preparing the sauce for the trout in wine. We made the white sauce by heating one cube of butter and one cup of soy oil in a pan, and then added two spoons of flour, some salt and three decilitres of milk. The milk should be added with constant stirring so that the mixture is smooth and lump-free, almost like a pudding. When it cooled down, we add 150ml of sour cream, a few drops of lemon juice and some pepper - in this case, I think we added a bit too much. But, Medo's crew won't mind because everyone knows that pepper is the favourite spice of Marija who assisted in making the sauce. She likes to spice it up with pepper and that's that - no questions asked!
We poured the sauce over the trout and that's it. You can always serve some silverbeet, potatoes or cauliflower with this dish.

Source: „What Will I Cook Today?" –  Notes from Medo's Kitchen
Text: Mia Sesartić, Recipes: Zoran Kljaković Gašpić – Medo