Trout Three Ways

Trout three ways! The Snowy Mountains is home to some of Australia’s most pristine waterways and in turn, pristine wild trout. Mickey shares with us his three favourite ways to cook and eat trout; ceviche, smoked and grilled using the Snow Peak Pack & Carry Fireplace. 

We bring to you a three-part series featuring the energetic Mickey Finn cooking some good food while bringing the good vibes and, of course, catching some good fish. Mickey is coming to you from Lake Eucumbene, the largest lake in the Snowy Mountains Scheme, in Kosciuszko National Park. Watch part one here!

Ceviche

The most simple way to cook trout. It’s literally as simple as covering freshly sliced trout with a citrus such as lemon or lime and letting the acid ‘cook’ the fish.

Ingredients:

Freshly caught trout fillet

Lime or lemon juice, enough to cover the trout. Fresh is better but bottled works fine too.

Garnish of choice: chilli, coriander, parsley, red onion, tomato, avocado etc.

Method:

1. After removing the skin slice your filleted fish into thin sashimi style slices. Not paper thin, still chunky enough to have a bite.
2. Then, it’s as simple as covering your trout with the lemon or lime juice and placing in a fridge or cooler for a couple of hours.
3. Eat as is with crackers (or a box of shapes if you wanna be real fancy) or garnish with your choice of flavours be it coriander and avocado, onion and tomato or whatever else your heart desires.

Smoked Trout

Ingredients:

Freshly caught trout fillet with skin on

Brown sugar

Salt

Method:

1. Rub your trout fillets with brown sugar and salt and leave to marinate for a few hours, preferably overnight.
2. Prepare your fire by smothering any flame with wood chips.
3. Place your trout skin side down directly onto the grill and then cover with a pan to create a ‘smoker’. Keep an eye on the fire to ensure you don’t end up with flames or big flare-ups.
4. Because this is 'hot smoking' it'll only take a couple of minutes to cook through, depending on how hot your fire is. The trout will lift easily from the grill once cooked through.

Butterfly Trout

Mickey keeps the trout whole including the skin and scales, removing the spine and the ribs to open the trout up like a butterfly. The result is one large fillet, a ‘trout steak’, if you will. Make sure the fish is gutted and scaled if you prefer, but the scales are small enough that they can be left on. If you have never butterflied a trout before, best to watch the video above.

Ingredients:

Freshly caught trout left whole (excluding the guts)

Knob of butter

Garlic to taste (no such thing as too much)

Method:

1. Take a really sharp knife and run it from the spine at the head following it down towards the tail, cracking the ribs as you go.
2. Avoid cutting through the skin on the other side, it’s going to crisp up nicely at the grilling stage.
3. Follow the same process for the other side of the spine.
4. Clip the spine off as you run back up towards the head, clipping the head off too.
5. Placing some paper towel on your chopping board makes the next part a little easier.
6. To remove the rib bones, inch the knife along slowly, cutting away from you. Avoid making a sawing motion and instead push your knife up against the bones to to cut away the bone and the membrane without taking too much meat.
7. Finally you can snip off the fins. You could go in with tweezers to remove the few pin bones but it’s not necessary.
8. Melt the butter and brown the garlic in a pan over hot coals.
9. Dunk your trout into the pan to cover with the garlic butter then place your trout directly on the grill, skin side down first. Set the remaining garlic butter aside.
10. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for a couple minutes each side, flipping once. The trout will lift easily from the grill when ready to be flipped.
11. Serve with the remaining garlic butter sauce.