Archive for the ‘Smoked Trout Starters’ Category

Recipe 15 – Smoked Trout Burgers

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

Hurray for another exciting new way to cook smoked trout – and as with the best recipes this one is easy to prepare and straightforward to cook.  You can even choose whether you grill or fry (an ongoing debate in our house) – see To Grill or To Fry below.

almost finished trout burger

I took an original recipe for un-smoked trout fishcakes and did some doctoring to transform what might have been a regular and slightly bland fish cake that tasted more of potato than fish into a serious culinary delight.  It was mmm hmm mmm delicious and lucky Olly has a couple left over for his lunch today while I pace around London searching out the best deli’s to partner with as our London suppliers (any ideas very welcome please).

delicious trout ingredients

 Ingredients:

Makes 8 smoked trout burgers to serve 4 people

 – 200g Smoked trout*

– 300g mashed potato

– 2 bunches spring onion

– Generous bunch of fresh parsley or coriander or similar green herb

– 2 stems of fresh or frozen lemongrass

– Pinch of dried chilli flakes

– Pinch of cayenne pepper

– Salt n’ pepper

– Juice from 1/2 lemon

– Breadcrumbs**

*I used hot smoked trout for easy flaking into the mashed potato but I’m going to experiment with the smoke roasted for a deeper flavoured burger and also with heating up the cold smoked and seeing if that works.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a versatile recipe that works with all three types of our smoked trout?

**To confess or not to confess.  Father Christmas gave me a pot of dried flavoured breadcrumb crust which worked a treat, though obviously if you have the time and energy to do your own breadcrumbs then so much the better.

cheat trout crust

Recipe Steps

1. Boil your potatoes.
2. Tear or chop your parsley/coriander. 
3. Flake your smoked trout. 

4. Make your spring onion, lemon grass, smoked trout and herb mix:

Slice and then finely chop your spring onions (don’t be afraid to keep going further along the green leaf than normal; this is good flavoursome greenery) and lemon grass.

wizz double blad

Introducing another useful gadget: the double bladed chopper

trout burger chopped spring onion

Gently fry your chopped spring onions and lemon grass in a tea spoon of olive oil and once soft add the chilli flakes and cayenne pepper.

simmering spring onions for trout burger

Add your flaked smoked trout for an extra 3 minutes of cooking to allow the spring onion and chilli flavours to infuse up and through the trout.

flaked smoked trout

5. Next step mashed potato:

Once your boiling potatoes are soft drain the water, add a splash of milk and mash up.  Avoid adding salt to the potatoes (there is plenty in the smoked trout) and no need to add butter for the mash, just a splash of milk will give the potato the creamy texture it needs. 

6. Now make the burger mixture:

Transfer the mashed potato, flaked smoked trout and spring onion mixture to large bowl.

Add your chopped parsley/coriander, lemon juice and salt and pepper. 

cinco scissors for trout blog

Mix well with a spoon or your hand.

making trout burgers

7.  And finally make your burgers:

Make your burgers by taking a handful of the mixture and patting from palm to palm into round flat burgers.  

trout burger palm patting

Put a generous amount of breadcrumbs into a flat bottomed bowl and drop your burgers in one-by-one, turning them over to ensure a smooth covering of breadcrumbs all over.

beautiful trout burgers

 Top Tip: Keep your burgers relatively small to enable easier cooking and handling (the larger they are the more inclined they are to fall apart and less likely to heat through during cooking).

Grill or fry your burgers as preferred and serve with a salad or vegetable of your choice, we had lots of lettuce, rocket and red onion to hand which was a light companion to the richer burger.

 

To Grill or To Fry

As two head-strong and amateur food enthusiasts it is surprising how little we argue about cooking but one frequent debate is whether we grill or fry, with Olly advocating frying and Shara preferring to grill.

To put the matter to bed once and for all we decided to run a trial.

Shara grilling trout burgers

Shara grilled…

Olly frying trout burgers

…and Olly fried.

Result: both looked and tasted great but the grilled burgers were more robust,easier to handle and looked and tasted better than the slightly softer fried version.  Hurray for a clear outcome and, for a few weeks at least, some peace in my kitchen.

delicious smoked trout burger

Grilled on the left, fried on the right

 Some Garlic Mayo with that?

quick garlic mayo for trout burger

As a greedy extra you can also make a quick garlic mayo by adding a crushed garlic clove and black pepper to some (home-made or bought) mayonnaise.  Olly took responsibility for this, made it in 5 minutes flat and it was delicious.

More Kitchen Gadgets

new mini super juicer for trout blog

As promised in the last blog update, here is the mini hand-held juicer ideal for those smaller lemon juice moments.  Thank you Father Christmas.

Recipe 13 – Trout Blog gets social

Friday, December 7th, 2012

Recipe 13 is less a recipe and more a celebration of our first ever trout blog supper party, hosted by Moffat Water Food’s good friend Emma Hogan.

emmas trout tasting extravaganza

We are also celebrating a successful 2012 ‘Art meets Trout meets Wine’ and, another first for us, a stall at the Moffat Woollen Mill late night Christmas shopping.

moffat water foods all hands to deck
All hands to deck at Art Meets Wine Meets Trout 2012: the canape swat team go to work under the cool guidance of Pauline…

Moffat Water Foods feeling like Christmas
Our new stall at the Moffat Woollen Mill, a small trestle table laid down with smoked trout goodies.

Shara with Father Christmas
We even tempted Father Christmas out of his grotto with the enticing prospect of our hot smoked trout…

 And the results from all of our endeavours: perfect examples of our traditional smoked trout being the perfect canape.

trout the perfect canape

trout on a platter

So its all go for Moffat Water Foods as we edge our way closer to Christmas and start enjoying getting into the festive swing of things.  And for those of you who haven’t yet placed their Christmas order please don’t leave it too late; our online shop at www.moffatwaterfoods.com is whirring away busily in the background and we would hate to run out of stock and disappoint you.

moffat water foods christmas stock

Happy Chrismas prepping and shopping and planning and panicking to one and all.

Recipe 12 is Trout and Crab Parcels

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

This exquisite starter was referred to be by old friend and colleague Jez from my former life as data marketeer at Occam (if you need any help with data marketing look no further than Occam DM Ltd) and it ranks up there with Recipe 11 as utterly delicious, easy to prepare and still incredibly healthy. 

Who could have known that this trout adventure would yield such treasures, even ever-patient ever-tolerant guinea pig Olly is crying out for more – those of you thinking of placing Christmas orders watch out, Troutledge’s Trout Gluttony is threatening stock levels.

delicous trout and crab parcels

This recipe is so simple to prepare and yet such an innovative gourmet adventure it is a dream.   I slightly tweaked Jez’s original ingredients to include my ever-favourite ginger and also couldn’t resist substituting his shallots for spring onion which I find a refreshing companion to the richer trout and crab.  Other than that this is his recipe verbatim and a complimentary pack of Moffat Water Food’s finest smoked trout will be winging its way down to him tomorrow.  

Got any more up your sleeve, Jez?  This one was inspired.

Ingredients

White crab meat (I used a frozen pack from my local fishmonger and couldn’t taste that it wasn’t fresh)
Pre-sliced cold smoked trout (now available for Christmas Orders from www.moffatwaterfoods.com)
Finely chopped red chili, ginger, coriander & spring onion (but try to avoid using a processor as this wastes precious juice, I use a double bladed roller chopper for this and nearly all my trout blog recipes)
Small amount of mayo, mustard & freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt & pepper, spring onion, lime/lemon wedge & some greenery to garnish (I forgot to keep any coriander aside so ended up using basil leaves which seemed to go down well)

trout parcel crab mixture

As you might have guessed to make the crab parcel filling simply mix all the ingredients together bar the trout and the garnish, but go canny with the lime juice as you don’t want the mixture to be too runny. 

prepping the trout parcels
It was a mother and daughter team effort.

making trout parcels 
Adding the crab mixture to the trout parcel base.

trout parcels nearly there
And voila, the parcel is formed.

Next make your parcel wrapping by making a trout George Cross on a small plate, add the crab mix into the centre, fold the trout leaves over the top and do the double plate trick to turn the parcel upside down and present a smooth top. Add your lime/lemon wedge, sprinkle of spring onion and choice of greenery and serve to oohs and ahs from the lucky recipients of your culinary prowess.

 trout parcels ready to go

For wine, Jez recommends Chardonnay, Fume Blanc, Viognier or Pinot Gris.  I have to admit to being so focussed on savouring the flavours of the parcels that I can’t remember what wine we had, but I’ve no doubt it was enjoyed.

Recipe 11 – Fragrant Prawns on a Bed of Trout

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

Recipe 11 owes its origins to a delicious prawn and avocado starter that friends Ed and Tiffany gave us a couple of weeks ago and that has now been shamefully – but successfully – hacked to fit the Troutblog bill, namely replacing the avocado with a bed of smoked trout.

fragrant prawn on a bed of smoked trout

Incredibly easy to put together it consists of cold water prawns (harvested from British waters) in a sauce of finely chopped ginger, chili, garlic and coriander mixed with a splash of fish sauce, roasted sesame oil (one of my favourite ingredients) and the juice of a lime or two.

sesame oil lime juice and smoked trout

The wonderful thing about Recipe 11 is that it is so easy to keep the ingredients in the freezer, particularily the ginger, fresh coriander and chili all of which have saved me countless times as last minute essentials in unplanned meals.

This means you can progress from disorganised chaos to delicious gastro-adventure  in only 10 mins, an essential trick to have up your sleeve for when you’ve forgotten about your hard-working husband needing to be fed after a day’s fish farming.

smoked trout easy to prepare easy to prepare prawns and smoked trout smoked trout keeping Olly happy

Its important to keep aside some of the coriander (or parsley if you don’t have any fresh coriander to hand) as a garnish and don’t forget to throw in an extra lime wedge to serve. 

~~

Marks out of 10:

Ease of Preparation: 10/10
Taste and Deliciousness: 10/10
Healthy and Nutritious: 10/10

Could this be the winning recipe so far? Only 39 more to go, watch this space…

smoked trout with coriander garnish

Receipe 10 – Trout Pot

Sunday, October 14th, 2012

Recipe 10 isn’t sourced from a cook book, from the Internet or even suggested by a friend.  It is my attempt to solve fresh, healthy, tasty and fulfilling food on the go.

Is it possible to take Moffat Water Foods’ hot smoked trout, add natural yogurt, fresh parsley, capers and lime juice and pop it all in a sealed pot ready for eating on the move?

trout in a pot

Recipe 10 was my answer to that question, and the answer is of course yes, and yes, and yes.

fresh parsley is keyfresh limes are key

And my long suffering taster collaborator general enthuser confirmed his agreement.

olly says yes

The observant amongst you may notice that the photograph of ingredients includes sweet chili sauce. Having successfully cracked the clean flavour of the natural yogurt with capers, parsley and lime I tried a second experiment with yogurt and sweet chili sauce – this time adding a hint of paprika to cut across the sweetness of the sweet chili.

I thought it was delicious but Olly preferred the first version. To put both to the test I shall be running taster sessions at Moffat Producers Markets on 10th November – hope to see any locals there.

Meanwhile, the usual scoring out of ten:

Ease of Preparation:

9/10 – could not be easier

Taste:

7/10 – good, but more of a snack than a luxury

Recipe 9 – Trout and Ginger Salad

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

healthy and delicious

This is a deliciously clean and easy to prepare starter, the perfect balance to a richer main course. It is also so versatile that it works with all types of trout – hot or cold smoked, or unsmoked cooked fillet.

If like me you keep capers in the cupboard, ginger in the freezer and always have salad in the fridge then its perfect for when you’d forgotten you were meant to be cooking dinner.

Ran Morgan enjoying trout

Ingredients

For the salad:
Hot smoked trout or cold smoked trout or pre-cooked trout fillet
Strong tasting salad leaves such as rocket
Yellow or red peppers or both
Fresh coriander
Thinly sliced ginger
Capers

For the dressing:
Lime juice
Grated ginger
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
White wine vinegar or rice vinegar

One useful tip, use scissors to cut the trout into bitesize pieces.

tip to cut the trout

Then just add the trout and chopped pepper to the salad, add the dressing, toss the whole salad and add cracked black pepper and a sprinkling of coriander as a garnish.

red and yellow peppers with trout

Use both red and yellow peppers for maximum effect.

trout and ginger salad

Delicious and exceptionally healthy.

Marks out of ten:

10/10 for ease of preparation.
10/10 for taste.
10/10 for healthy nutritional food that you can eat as much as you like of without feeling guilty.

Recipe 7 – Selcoth Sunday Special

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

It has become such a staple meal for us that we almost didn’t include this recipe in our 52 Recipes in 52 Weeks Challenge which would have been a pity, because it is one of the most delicious, simple and easy ways to enjoy hot or cold smoked rainbow trout.

Selcoth Sunday Special is poached or scrambled eggs from Selcoth hens with Moffat Water Foods hot or cold smoked trout.  It is incredibly quick and easy to prepare and, if you are on a Dukan or other protein-orientated post-weekend detox, it is  the most perfect and guilt free way to finish off the weekend.

selcoth sunday special
Cold smoked rainbow trout with poached egg from our Selcoth hens.

Olly enjoying smoked trout
Olly tucking in, no Sunday Blues in sight.

Recipe 6 Behind the Scenes

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

The work that went on before enjoying recipe 6: Selcoth Intra-Farm Pig Moving, with a little help from our friends.

last chance at the milk bar

The piglets last chance at the milk bar before moving to their new home out on the hill – all 20 of them, leaving their exhausted mothers in the orchard behind the house.

Letting Brutus Go

Brutus was almost adopted as a house-pig, or as Fergus’s kennel companion.

it was a team effort

It was a team effort.

happy in their new home

Happy in their new home.

job well done

A job well done.

Receipe 6 a little delayed

Friday, August 10th, 2012

Before we could begin Recipe 6 we were advised to move home, or at least to move the web address of this blog, and that has taken us some time.  We are now back and raring to go with renewed enthusiasm for delicious trout, healthy cooking, sustainable farming and British production – so expect lots more.  And the mission is the same, 52 trout recipes in 52 weeks, scroll down for details from the first post.

selcoth sheep
Sheep on Selcoth hill

Recipe 6 will be a smoked trout and broccoli frittata (open faced omelette) for a well deserved lunch after extracting the 18 remaining piglets from their sunny nursery and moving them to their new home up on the hill.  Hopefully there won’t be too much chasing or too many bruises, I’m sure there will be some entertainment either way.

sunny pigs
Piglets sun bathing

Recipe 1 is Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Mushroom Sauce

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Recipe 1 is Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Mushroom SauceRecipe 1 is Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Mushroom Sauce

Recipe 1 = a success!

Rainbow trout fillets baked on a bed of onions and limes, served with an indulgent spinach and mushroom sauce.  A slight detour from the recipe since having successfully negotiated the filleting of the rainbow trout fillets we decided not to embark on the de-skinning, not on Recipe 1 at least.

Marks out of ten:

7/10 for ease of preparation
8/10 for reward and enjoyment

Recipe 1 is Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Mushroom Sauce 

Our version

We couldn’t resist doctoring (and health-boosting) the original recipe by replacing the butter, flour and creme fraiche with olive oil, no flour and a tiny amount of Greek yoghurt.
We also baked the trout on a bed of onions and ginger (covered with tinfoil to prevent it drying out) because my said mother is also Dukan-Diet-Obsessed so fried trout was a no-no, and despite concerns from her less-health-conscious family it turned out to be a triumph.

Recipe 1 is Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Mushroom Sauce
‘Oh-me-ga it’s delicious’

See http://www.moffatwaterfoods.com/take-two-trout/rainbow-trout-with-spinach-and-mushroom-sauce.htm

The Original

The full recipe in its original form can also be found on Moffat Water Food’s Rainbow Trout Recipe Library:

See http://www.moffatwaterfoods.com/rainbow-trout-recipes/rainbow-trout-with-spinach-and-mushroom-sauce.htm