Adventures in Trout Curing & Smoking
Having been the lucky recipient of several filleted sides of trout, I froze the fish to wait for a ‘rainy day’ when I would have time to cure and smoke them. In fact the Beast from the East provided not rain but a few days of snow and huge drifts blocking our driveway at home near Exmoor provided the perfect opportunity to get on with it.
Trout seems to be one of those foods which is always in glut, not only in terms of supply but also recipe inspiration, so I was hoping to try something a little different and test out some new flavours. I created two cure mixes, an Asian inspired combination of ginger, chilli and coriander and an Indian mix of turmeric, cardamom and fennel. Using coarse salt as a dry cure base, and having defrosted the trout, I cured two fillets in the Asian mix with honey in place of the sugar and another two fillets in the Indian mix with soft brown sugar. I left them to cure in the fridge overnight. They had taken on quite different colours after this time, the Asian trout more pink whilst the turmeric in the Indian trout had created a rich orange glow.
Having removed them from the cure mix, both were submerged in cold water for 15 minutes, dried with kitchen towel, then laid on an open rack back in the fridge to dry out.
The next day, I got the smoker ready. Our ProQ Excel Elite is just perfect for the job, though it could have handled many times the quantity of fish. I used the regular sized ProQ Cold Smoke Generator and filled it with an 90% layer of Beech dust with around 10% of Douglas Fir. The latter is designed to be a mixer to help introduce colour, but it’s also incredibly aromatic so I thought this could be an interesting flavour combination and not too overpowering for the trout.
The trout were smoked for around 7 hours and then put back on the drying rack for the smoke flavour to settle.
Then they were thinly sliced (sharp thin knife cutting virtually horizontally towards the tail end of the fillet) and sampled.
Really impressed with the subtle Indian flavours of turmeric and cardamom whilst the Asian flavours did not come through as strongly. The addition of soy sauce was interesting, but I would adjust the salt cure content and use less if using both together again. That said, both were delicious.
ASIAN CURED & SMOKED TROUT
2 x trout fillet (approximately 1kg in total)
2 tablespoons runny honey
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
few sprigs of fresh coriander
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon of fresh ginger
Finely chop the fresh ingredients - chilli, ginger and coriander, crush the coriander seeds and grate the lemon peel and zest and squeeze out the juice. Create a bed of coarse salt in a ceramic dish and lay the fillets skin down onto the salt, sprinkle more salt on the top. Mix all the other ingredients together and spoon over the trout, spread evenly and press in with the back of your spoon. Leave for 12 hours, or overnight, in the fridge.
Remove the fillets from the dish, rinse and then submerge in clean cold water for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove, pat dry with kitchen towel, then leave to dry for several hours.
Smoke for 6 to 10 hours, depending on how smokey you like your food. Choose a light or medium smoke flavour. We created a wood flavour mix, combining Beech with Douglas Fir. Remove from the smoker and leave to settle for a few hours before slicing thinly.
TURMERIC CURED & SMOKED TROUT
2 x trout fillets (approximately 1kg in total)
1/2 teaspoon cardamon seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
couple of whole star anise
Crush the fennel, cardamon and star anise then add the bown sugar and turmeric powder. Place a layer of coarse salt on the base of a ceramic dish and place the two fillets skin down on the salt. Scatter more salt over the top and then add the spice and sugar mixture, spreading evenly and pressing into the trout flesh with the back of your spoon. Leave to cure in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight. Then follow the directions above.
