Sunday 4 January 2009

smoked rainbow trout


This Christmas my dad proudly showed off his new smoker and the excellent goodies coming out of it.

Not only had he made a delicious chilli beef jerky, flavoursome and not too chewy, but he managed to smoke up a succulent rainbow trout.

About a year or so ago, dad became obsessed with fly fishing. The flies he makes are so good he can sell them to fishing shops.

I suspected Dad was artistic when my school projects were finished with near-perfect sketches, but he’d hidden these skills well under his PE teacher, basketball-coach, platoon-commander bravado.

These days, now that his study is filled with peacock feathers, roe deer hair and fluorescent pink string, his artistic side is quite obvious. His flies are really beautiful and elegantly tied together. One particular blue set looked like some earrings I’d recently seen for sale!


With fly fishing comes trout eating and my father’s smoked rainbow trout is simply exquisite: delicate oils under the luminescent skin lubricating firm peachy flesh. None of this bright orange dyed stuff you get from supermarkets!

At Christmas he gave me one fillet and my sister another. Shamu and Tombo ate their's with pasta while I turned mine into a herb and caper potato salad.

It was this amazing fish (and his beef jerky) that convinced Jonas and I to buy a smoker (one of my 2009 food resolutions). Unfortunately when we visited the store on Boxing Day they were sold out of smokers. We're in line for the next delivery and are already dreaming up things to smoke: oysters, mussels, chicken, almonds and tofu!


Smoked Rainbow Trout
Recipe from smoker manufacturer. Makes 4 fillets.


Ingredients:

500ml water
2 tablespoons salt
1½ tablespoons sugar
4 fillets rainbow trout
2 tablespoons hickory sawdust

Method:

1. Mix brine and soak fish for 20 minutes (the longer the better).

2. Line the smoker with aluminium foil and scatter with hickory sawdust.

3. Lay fish, skin side down on wire rack of smoker. Allow brine to air dry.

4. Smoke fish for 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets. Eat warm or cold.


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4 comments:

  1. Yum. I've always been fascinated by smokers. Can't wait until you get your smoker so we can all get inspired (and possibly buy our own!).

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  3. Anna, I love all things smoked...I really should get a smoker as well.

    The smoked trout sounds delish and it can be used in so many ways.

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  4. Hope you get your smoker soon and show us how it looks like. We like to smoke at home, I actually spent the whole Christmas break smoking sausages, ham and bacon! We have an outdoor stove so we just modify our "smoker". I'm transfering to the big city soon. Hope I could still do some smoking.

    Gay

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