[jyl]

Okay, I did a dry run w/ two whole trout, smallish (each about 10"), poached in white wine/onions/peppercorn/bayleaf, de-boned, portioned, and served with hollandaise sauce/crab meat. Not exactly JR's recipe but inspired by it. Did this pretty quick and dirty.

Conclusions:
- The whole trout won't work. It tasted great. But it was too time-consuming to de-bone, skin, arrange, portion, and plate without things getting messy. If I were doing one whole trout per person and let the guests deal with the bones and skin, no problem. But I'm thinking more like 1/4 trout per - this is just one of several courses after all. I'll have to plate 12 dishes and I want them pretty.
- The hollandaise/crab sauce works. Tasty. I'll make it an hour ahead and keep in a thermos.
- Presentation problem - the platter gets kind of waterlogged. It's hard to thoroughly dry off the poached whole trout, as it is delicate. Watery sauce is not pretty.
- So, it will probably be trout fillets, or small halibut fillets, placed on slices of absorbing bread, with that sauce. Easy to cook, can't screw it up unless I break the sauce, and easy to plate. Not as pretty as a whole trout, but oh well.

Vash, I can't bake the fish course because the oven will be in use for the main then the dessert. So can't do the en papier.