John went on a fishing trip for work and brought home quite the hall. Two huge bags of rainbow trout! Needless to say, I was excited about the possibilities.
Lately, we've been smoking everything. Everything on the Traeger Smoker, that is. We've done smoked salmon in the past, so smoked trout seemed comparable.
We started by brining the fish overnight. The next day, we started choppin' off the heads and tails of each little bugger.
Then, we filleted each one and removed as many bones as we could. This was some freaking tedious work!
Lastly, we lightly seasoned each fillet, placed them in the smoker and left them alone for a few hours on low heat.
And out came these smokey, brilliantly-colored beauties!
We ended up devouring the trout in a few different ways: 1) straight off the smoker 2) with goat cheese on a baguette and 3) as a smoked trout dip with cream cheese, capers and lemon. Each way was equally delicious!
Here is my suggecipe for smoked trout:
- fresh rainbow trout
- brine (water, equal parts sugar + salt, spices)
- spices (we used the Traeger Salmon Shake)
- hickory wood pellets
Soak trout in brine for at least 8 hours. Remove trout's head + tail. Fillet each fish and remove bones. Lightly season. Smoke trout for 2-3 hours at 160-180 degrees until it feels slightly hard to the touch. Remove from smoker and indulge yourself.
Stay tuned for the smoked trout dip recipe!