Some meals begin with a shopping list.

Others begin with a recipe.

This one began with a trout.

It was lying on the fish counter this morning, its skin glowing with soft pinks and golds, looking almost too beautiful to cook. I hadn’t gone looking for fish, but sometimes the best meals aren’t planned. They’re discovered.

A bunch of curly kale from the farmers’ market. A couple of Dutch Cream potatoes. A single beetroot. A lemon. A handful of sorrel and chives from the garden.

That was enough.

How’s that trout

There’s a temptation these days to think every meal needs another ingredient, another spice, another complicated technique. I think the opposite is often true. When the ingredients are good enough, your job is simply not to get in their way.

The trout was stuffed with lemon, garlic, fresh sorrel and chives from the garden, finished with a little butter, then baked whole until the flesh was just beginning to lift from the backbone.

The potatoes became Lyonnaise potatoes, gently browned with onion and butter.

The kale needed nothing more than garlic, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

The beetroot was roasted whole until sweet enough to stand on its own.

Just before serving, the pan juices were turned into a quick butter sauce with the remaining sorrel and chives—a reminder that some of the best sauces take less than a minute to make.

Tastes better than in looks

The result wasn’t elaborate.

It didn’t need to be.

Every ingredient still tasted like itself.

The trout remained the star of the plate, supported rather than overwhelmed by everything around it.

Perhaps that’s what I enjoy most about cooking from local markets.

You don’t begin by asking, “What shall I cook?”

You begin by asking, “What’s beautiful today?”

The answer changes every week.

That’s exactly why it’s worth going.

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Whole Baked Trout with Sorrel Butter

Ingredients

• 1 whole fresh trout, cleaned
• 1 lemon
• A handful of sorrel leaves
• A small bunch of fresh chives
• 2–3 cloves garlic
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

• Dutch Cream potatoes for Lyonnaise potatoes
• Curly kale
• 1 beetroot

Method

Heat the oven to 200°C.

Season the trout inside and out. Fill the cavity with slices of lemon, half the sorrel, half the chopped chives, garlic and a generous knob of butter.

Rub the skin with olive oil and season well.

Bake for around 20 minutes, depending on the size of the fish, until the flesh flakes easily from the bone.

While the fish rests, place the baking tray over medium heat. Add another knob of butter and, if available, a splash of dry white wine. Stir in the remaining sorrel and chives for no more than 30 seconds before finishing with a squeeze of lemon.

Serve with Lyonnaise potatoes, garlicky kale and roasted beetroot.

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Rough Cut Note

One of the pleasures of shopping at a farmers’ market is that it frees you from recipes.

You come home with what looks good, what smells good and what’s in season. The meal reveals itself as you unpack the basket.

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, dinner has already chosen itself before you’ve even left the market.