Hot smoked trout fillet with salad and boiled potatoes
Smoked trout, just like smoked salmon, can be fairly widely obtained in Scotland, particularly at farmers' markets or in farm shops. It is not quite so readily available in traditional supermarkets as the perhaps more illustrious salmon. One thing I have found, though, when buying hot smoked trout or salmon in Scotland, is that more often than not, it seems to be over-smoked. This could be that it is cooked at too high a temperature or cooked for too long - or perhaps both! That is why the smoked trout used in this recipe is home smoked and the difference in a great many instances truly is night and day.
Home, hot smoked rainbow trout fillets
I am of course aware that home smoking is not an option for a great many people for any number of potential reasons. It may be however that you have a small, artisan producer in your local area where you can obtain smoked trout at a more reasonable price than is often charged by the larger commercial producers.
Cook Time (Not Including Smoking of Trout)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ready in: 30 min
Yields: 1 serving
- Baby new potatoes as required
- Salt
- 1 duck egg (7 to 10 days old - fresher eggs of any type don't hard boil well)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large garlic clove
- Generous pinch dried basil
- Black pepper
- Handful mixed type lettuce leaves, roughly shredded
- 1 medium tomato, chopped into segments
- 2 inch/5cm piece of cucumber, halved lengthways and sliced into crescents
- 6 pitted black olives, halved down through the cavity where the pip was contained
- Portion of hot smoked trout as required
- Little bit of butter
- Dried dill
- 2 teaspoons horseradish sauce
Method
Put the potatoes into a pot of cold, salted water and put the pot on to a high heat until the water starts to simmer. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer for 20 minutes.
Put the duck egg into a small saucepan and add enough cold water to ensure it is comfortably covered. Put the saucepan on to a high heat to achieve a moderate simmer for 6 minutes. Lift the saucepan to your sink and run cold water into it for a couple of minutes. Leave the duck egg in the water to cool rapidly and until the potatoes are almost ready. This prevents that harmless but very unattractive blue/grey discolouration forming around the edges of the yolk when the egg is peeled and cooled.
Preparing simple oil based salad dressing
Pour the olive oil into a large glass or stone mixing bowl. Peel the garlic clove and grate it into the bowl. Season with salt, black pepper and the dried basil before stirring very well to ensure everything is combined.
Salad is added to bowl containing oil based dressing
Put the lettuce, tomato, cucumber and black olives into the bowl with the dressing and use a wooden spoon to carefully stir fold them around in the oil.
Crack the shell of the duck egg on a hard surface and carefully peel away. Ensure you get under the membrane just inside the shell for easy peeling. Cut it in half down through the centre.
Butter and dill are added to the drained potatoes
Drain the potatoes at your sink through a colander and return them to the empty pot. Add a little butter and dried dill and gently swirl the pot to ensure even coating.
Hot smoked trout fillet is cut in half
The smoked trout fillet I had when preparing this recipe was far too large for one serving. I therefore cut it in half, peeled away the skin and laid the chosen portion on one corner of a square serving plate. I will feature the other half of this fillet in the next post on this blog in the coming days. The two duck egg halves went either side of the trout, garnished with a little dried dill, along with a teaspoon of horseradish sauce in each instance.
The potatoes were then plated opposite the trout before the salad was arranged either side for service.
