Sometimes a dish is not found until it is in front of you. We are lucky enough to have a river near by as well as an abundance of trout and a chef wanting to spend time on the river. Yesterday a fresh trout miraculously appeared in the refrigerator. The fishing chef cleaned up the fish and fired up the smoker. Aki grabbed the baton and made a smoked trout rillette with some fromage blanc, chives and minced jalapeno. (Meanwhile, with the smoker still on, I snuck some celery in for a new one for me--smoked celery. Yes, once it was smoked we compressed it.) We then went to
work on several other vegetables. The result was a plate of crudite (truly bastardized) with smoked trout rillette. The tray was truly enjoyed, it returned empty.
The components of the crudite sparked the idea of personalizing the large platter. We trimmed down a few of the vegetables while keeping the essence of the ingredients.
