Trout with Quail Eggs and Caviar Salad

 

Pan fried trout fillet on dressed salad with devilled quail eggs and caviar

This recipe was prepared using a rainbow trout fillet, a fish native only to North America, while native Scottish trout are of course brown trout. However, these fish have long since been exported around the world, including very much to Scotland, where they are regularly found in fish farms, reservoirs and other private lochs. A great many people will not in fact know that rainbows are not native to Scotland. 

I have shallow fried this fillet in hot oil before serving it on a bed of dressed salad, accompanied by horseradish devilled quail eggs and lumpfish caviar. This form of caviar is very budget friendly and can easily be obtained in modern times in most good supermarkets. This little jar cost £3 for 50g and would produce about six servings of this size.

Gutted rainbow trout with head and tail removed

There are any number of ways to fillet a trout and those who do it regularly will have their own preferred technique. In this instance, I began by gutting the fish and removing the head and tail.

Fillets removed from rainbow trout

The two side fillets can then quickly and easily be removed and are ready for cooking. The first fillet I used for the recipe which now follows and the second fillet, I placed into a suitable dish and the fridge and will use it in the next recipe to be featured on this blog.

Cook Time

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 10 min

Ready in: 25 min

Yields: 1 serving

Ingredients

• 3 quail eggs (about a week old)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove
• Generous pinch dried basil
• Salt and pepper
• Handful mixed type lettuce leaves, roughly shredded
• 3 baby plum tomatoes, halved down through the core
• 1 inch/2.5cm piece of cucumber, halved lengthways then sliced into crescents
• 6 pitted black olives, halved down through cavity
• 1/2 teaspoon horseradish sauce
• Little amount lumpfish caviar, as required
• 1 rainbow trout fillet
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Dried dill to garnish

Method

Put the quail eggs into a small saucepan with enough cold water to ensure they are comfortably covered. Put the saucepan on to a high heat until the water just starts to boil. Reduce the heat to achieve a moderate simmer for 1.5 minutes. Take the saucepan to your sink and run cold water into it for a minute or so. Leave the eggs for a few minutes to cool in the water while you prepare the salad.

Combining salad ingredients in dressing

Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a large glass or stone bowl. Peel the garlic clove and grate it into the bowl. Alternatively, it can be peeled and crushed before being added. Season with salt, pepper and the dried basil and stir well with a wooden spoon before adding the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and black olives. Carefully stir fold to fully combine the ingredients and ensure the salad is fully and evenly coated in the oil.

Hard boiled, peeled and halved quail eggs

It is when you come to peel the quail eggs that their being at least a week old becomes essential. If you have boiled eggs that are too fresh, the albumens will still have been too acidic and the inner membrane will stick to the egg white, leading to likely disaster. It is important to carefully crack the shell all around on a hard surface and start peeling at the broad end of the egg, ensuring you get under the membrane as well as the shell. Take your time and ensure not to damage the incredibly delicate eggs. Gently rinse in cold water when peeled to ensure you remove all the little parts of shell and pat dry with kitchen paper.

A thin bladed, exceptionally sharp knife should be used to halve the eggs, down through the yolk. I find a fish filleting knife is ideal for this purpose. The point of this knife can then be used to gently pop the yolks from the albumen casings.

Caviar and horseradish yolks are added to quail egg white casings

Put the quail egg yolks into a small bowl with the horseradish sauce and mash together with the back of a fork. Carefully spoon a third of this mixture into each of 3 of the half quail egg albumen casings. The caviar should be spooned into the remaining egg casings - but do not use a metal spoon! Metal will cause the caviar to quickly oxidise and spoil the flavour and texture. A traditional caviar spoon is made of mother-of-pearl but if you don't have one of those, a small plastic spoon will do the job. 

Trout fillet is added to hot frying pan

Pour some vegetable oil into a large, non-stick frying pan and bring it up to a high heat. Season the trout fillet with salt and pepper on both sides before carefully laying it into the hot pan on the skin side. Fry on the high heat for around 3 minutes until you can see the trout is cooked almost all the way through. Turn the heat under the pan down to minimum and carefully turn the fillet with a fish slice to allow it to complete cooking on the flesh side for 1 minute only.

Salad bed is prepared on plate for trout fillet

While the trout fillet is frying, spoon the salad on to a square serving plate, arranging it in a diagonal channel from one corner to the opposite corner. You want it to be slightly wider than the trout fillet.

Skin should peel easily from fried trout fillet

Lift the trout fillet carefully on to the salad bed, presented skin side up. Garnish the devilled quail eggs with a little dried dill and arrange the egg types alternately on either side of the fish on its salad bed. The crisped skin should easily peel free from the fillet and, if desired, the trout flesh can also be garnished with more dried dill.