Smoked
Troutzilla.
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Some
people eat fish like a bear - raw.
I
myself am not the sushi-mans best customer nor am I the greatest fish
eater full stop, regardless of species and trout are no exception.
Having
said that, I don’t mind the traditional fat saturated unhealthy
deep-fried fish and chips calorific bullet, but I resit it for health
reasons. Once on your lips, forever on your hips type shite!
This
might surprise those of you knowing that I practice C&K (Catch and
Keep) or C&E (Catch and Eat) instead of the ‘in vouge’ C&R
(Catch and Release). It used to be the hunter-gatherer’s job to get food
into the cave, now we just go to the fridge and voila, fish fingers and
cardboard sauce at the ready.
My
philosophy is simple however; each fish is a valuable food commodity and
every fish I catch/keep will be eaten. Not necessarily by me mind you, but
it will be eaten. I
don’t want to give all my secrets away but there is such a thing as a
barter system or should I say an ‘fff’ system, ‘fish for favour’
system? I hasten to add that it is illegal to sell trout in Tasmania,
other than those farmed under license. But the guy next door has more eggs
than he can eat and I have fish, which he likes a lot but can’t catch.
You get my drift? And there is the other guy who… and so on.
Local
supermarkets sell farmed pan size Trout for $9.99/kg (including head and
tail) and farmed Salmon for $19.99/kg, when on special, they’re fed on
chicken pellets and taste just like them (in my view – your honour).
Give me a wild trout any time.
Now
I do know some fly fishers who catch and release fish because they don’t
like to eat fish and that’s fine, at least they get out and about in
that great cathedral of the Great Outdoors, and they never exceed the bag
limit.
So
back to the smoked trout recipe.
The
first time I came across this method of eating/smoking trout was 30 or so
years ago. We were fishing at the mouth of the Eucumbene River and with
some success I might add. We were in a group of 5 if my memory doesn’t
fail me – always a possibility mind you.
My
personal biggest fish (and the biggest I ever managed not to lose) was
7.5lb and on the back of that photo Picture #1
it says 7.5lb and 5lb brown, 4.5lb rainbow the rest 4-3.5lb
brown (all clean weighed). I remember being stuck in a 4.5lb fish for over
20 minutes that night and when I finally beached him, he was hooked in the
dorsal fin.
I
took 15 fish that night, the smallest 3.5lb clean. It was the time before
bag limits were in place and I was much younger then and had less nous and
even less awareness.
And,
as a matter of apology to all and sundry, I was only able to make the
seven-hour drive from Sydney to Eucumbene twice a year and could only stay
for a week or so. The rest of my life I was stuck in traffic going to and
from work.
Anyway,
we had gone out for the evening run and fished with Taihape Tickler,
Matuka and Craig’s Night Time, flies hardly used nowadays, but still,
trout are opportunistic feeders.
We
fished from eight at night and by two in the morning we were so hungry we
could eat the proverbial crutch out of a leopard or was it a leper? Nobody
wanted to start the long walk back to the caravan park and the fish were
still ‘on’. A fire was lit, and a bit of discarded fence wire was
formed to accommodate and support a trout. Troutzilla grilled and smoked
has never tasted so good as in a starlit night at two in the morning in
March .
Here
then is my way of preparing Smoked Troutzilla!
Initially
after gutting the fish I cut the head off just behind the gill covers and
also cut the pectoral fins off. I remove the tail just behind the adipose
and anal fin. This gives me maximum meat and reduces freezer space.
Scaling
the fish is not necessary, unless you want to eat the skin.
Step
1 defrost fish, previously
cleaned and not scaled (not scaled is optional)
Step
2 Tools needed picture #2
Step
3 cut fish as shown in picture #3,
that is on one side of the backbone as far as practicable, DO NOT cut
through skin. NOTICE colour of wild trout, compare with Restaurant
version.
Step
4 this is what it looks like, picture
#4 both sides open, for heat and smoke access and skin in one
piece. Skin is your ‘frying pan’.
Step 5 put fish in wire frame, readily available for $10 bucks or so in outdoor shops or Army Disposal Shops. Picture #5
Step
6 put wire frame with fish on small
wood fire with smoke freely rising. Do not use treated pine or painted
wood. Natural gum, pine or garden cuttings are ok. You can buy special
woods like Ash, Birch, Oak or whatever, I personally don’t bother.
Picture #6
Step 7 NOTE: fire should be small and flames should just be ‘licking’ the fish and only occasionally. This is important! Hot smoke will cure/cook the fish, NOT the flame! Picture #7 is just about perfect, while in picture #8 the flames are too high, and the fish will dry out or the skin will burn (turn black and blister) before it is cooked through.
Step 8 turn fish over to smoke/grill the other side. Time depends on size of fish, eg the bigger the fish the longer it should be in the smoke and the ‘softer’ the fire/smoke should be. A 2lb fish (when alive and kicking) should take no more than 10min each side. That is 10min and two glasses of red! Picture #9
Step
9 The other side should still
be ‘glistering’ with moisture (not dry), you should hear hissing from
juices. Picture #10
Step
10 Back in the kitchen, remove the top wire Picture
#11 and carefully grab the backbone and lift it up.
Picture
#12 Note that ALL of the bones attached to the backbone are
lifted out and you finish up with two boneless fish fillets.
Step 11 On the ‘Port side’ lift the bones out with a knife picture #13
Step 12 you are now able to lift the meat out of the skin picture #14 #15 #16 and put on a plate. Picture #17. Note that the dorsal, pelvic and anal fin bones are still attached to the skin and most if not all bones on the Starboard Side are attached to the backbone. Picture #18
Step
13 Meanwhile, while you were smoking [the trout] and drinking the
mandatory two ‘reds’, ‘she who must be obeyed has prepared a potato
salad with fried bacon pieces, eggs, tomato, mayonnaise and what else one
fancies and you can sit down and think about good times gone and good
times to come and the day you caught the fish you just enjoyed eating. Picture
#19 #20
Bon
appetite, Troutzilla Lives!
If you would like to contact me for comments or contributions click here: thetroutwhisperer@bigpond.com