Here is the fish recipe I served at our dinner party. The original recipe has it served on a bed of vegetables but I edited all that out. You can find the original on epicurious.com.
In case anyone is planning to make it, here are my comments:
- The sauce did not boil down the required amount even after boiling for awhile. I think you need to either boil it really rapidly, or I don’t know what.
- All of the butter wasn’t necessary; it had a really buttery flavor. Right after you add the butter you will taste it and think “damn, this sauce sucks, it just tastes like butter”, but after it sits for awhile the orange and other flavors come out. Still, I wish I had taken the advice of the commenter who suggested letting the sauce sit for a few hours before straining.
- I added slightly more herbs than the recipe called for b/c I always do that, b/c I love herbs.

Pecan-crusted trout with orange-rosemary butter sauce

At the fish market, ask them to remove the head, tail and bones from the trout, then to cut each trout into two fillets, leaving the skin intact.

2 cups pecans (about 8 ounces)
1 cup all purpose flour
2 large (12- to 14-ounce) trout, filleted, skin left intact
3 large egg whites, beaten to blend

1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1 cup dry white wine
2/3 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
8 5-inch-long fresh parsley stems
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large fresh thyme sprig
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1/4 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
Chopped fresh chives

Make trout:
Combine pecans and 1 tablespoon flour in processor. Grind pecans finely; transfer to plate. Place remaining flour on another plate. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Dip 1 fillet into flour to coat; shake off excess. Using pastry brush, brush flesh side with egg whites. Place fillet, egg white side down, onto pecans; press to coat with nuts. Transfer to waxed paper-lined baking sheet, pecan side down. Repeat with remaining 3 fillets; chill.

Make sauce:
Combine first 7 ingredients in medium saucepan. Boil 10 minutes; add rosemary. Boil until liquid is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 10 minutes. Strain sauce into another medium saucepan, pressing on solids in sieve. Add cream; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time (do not boil). Season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature up to 2 hours.

Cook trout:
Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Place 2 fillets, pecan side down, into skillet. Cook until crust is golden and crisp, about 2 minutes. Using spatula, turn fillets over. Cook until just opaque in center, about 2 minutes. Transfer to plate. Repeat with remaining butter, oil and fish.
Whisk sauce over low heat to rewarm (do not boil). Sprinkle with chopped chives.

Serves 4.

COMMENTS FROM EPICURIOUS.COM I COPIED INTO MY WORD DOC:

This is possibly the best recipe I have found on Epicurious. The blending of flavors from the orange butter rosemary (use fresh!), the fish and the vegetables resulted in a superb dish, and so easy to make. I was able to remove the skin before staging with the sauce and veggies so I recommend you do that to get a more subtle flavor medley. Highly recommend it!Magnifique!

I started the meal with the field green, pear, blue cheese and walnut salad that is recommended as part of the menu. Loved it! As far as the trout, I wish the recipe specified what kind of trout to use. I used steelhead trout, which resembles salmon in color, texture and thickness. It took much longer than 2 minutes on each side to cook and I ended up slightly burning the pecan crust as a result of the additional time necessary to cook on the medium-high heat. Next time, I will cook on a lower setting. The sauce was unique and very delicious - nice color too. The cabbage, pepper and carrot mixture was a wonderful vegetable accompaniment, and made for a beautiful and colorful presentation. I also served wild rice as a side dish. Paired the entire meal with Korbel Le Premier - what a match! Very elegant. Would make for a lovely dinner party menu.

This was incredible! Definitely season the fish before cooking. I served it with sauteed spinach (with olive oil and garlic), poppyseed biscuits (recipe in the very first issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food), the recommended salad, and a fine French white graves. Divine.

Fabulous! I used pecan-crusted halibut instead of trout, and doubled the sauce. Use fresh orange juice. The sauce was great drizzled over wild rice and asparagus, and would be wonderful on a variety of other dishes.

Trout turned out great. I used golden rainbow trout and didn’t have any issues with the cooking time. Instead of the slaw, I served it with the Wild Rice and Toasted Pecans dish from this site and they complemented each other perfectly. I’ll definitely make it again.

The vegetable garnish makes a beautiful presentation. The delicately-flavored, good-enough-for-company fish might benefit from the addition of a jalapeno or similar pepper in the sauce or on top to make it zippier. The sauce had just a hint of rosemary; I expected more. To make the rosemary more pronounced, one could make the sauce except for the whipping cream and butter and let the mixture sit for several hours before straining the sauce. I agree with another reviewer that the amount of flour is way too much for the dredging. I used 1/3 c. for half the recipe. I baked the trout at 350 for 12-14 minutes until the pecans browned. Served with a lettuce wedge and grape tomatoes smothered with bleu cheese dressing, spinach souffle, garlic bow-knot rolls, and parmesan fettucine to soak up the sauce, the fish was amply filling.

I have been looking for a sauce to make with macadamia nut-crusted tilapia ever since we got back from Maui. This sauce was fabulous!

The sauce was very buttery. Although delicious, between the sauce and the pecans, the fish was nearly overpowered. The combination was good, but next time I will probably serve with mashed potatoes. We were all still hungry afterward.

This was an excellent complement to salmon steaks which I baked topped with thinly sliced oranges, (425* oven 10 min./inch ). I tripled the sauce recipe for 12 salmon steaks. Decreased the butter by half and adjusted the lemon juice to taste, adding it after the reduction process. Removed the salmon to a serving platter with sauce underneath the salmon and garnished with fresh rosemary sprigs. The next time I made an equally appealing sauce, but quite different in taste and color by using frozen OJ concentrate. A bottle of white wine was reduced with the shallots and herbs to 1/2 cup. The remaining ingreds. were then added for a fresher taste and brighter orange color. Both sauces were excellent!

Awesome! The only change I would make would be to add a little heavy cream and butter to the sauce to thicken it up otherwise a tad runny.