Duncton Club Recipes

This page is for some selected recipes for cooking the trout that members have caught at Duncton and eaten.  Please send your ideas for consideration to cfleetwood67@aol.com with a photo to help illustrate your favourite recipe.  Where it is a recipe from a book please give the title, author and ISBN number.

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Recipe 1
Mike Barrett
Grill the fish quickly for a couple of minutes until the skin can be removed. It's also better to cut off the belly fat before cooking. Put a sprig of rosemary and some garlic inside the fish and rub the outside with a little olive oil and spices - Sainsbury's do a super 'citrus rub' for fish, or you can cover the fish in lemon slices, cumin powder etc. Wrap in foil and oven bake for 15-20 minutes only. It's actually better cold than hot, to my taste.
(photo to come)

Recipe 2
Harriet Hall
For two people:

Take one fresh Duncton trout of about 1.5 to 2 lbs.
Mix together2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley and one of dill.
Mix in grated rind and the juice of half an orange.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Oil a generous sized sheet of foil and lay the fish on it.  Stuff the fish with the mixture, spreading some over the fish before wrapping and sealing with the foil.
Bake in a moderate oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

Recipe 3
Peter Meecham

In this recipe you cook fillets of your trout from the skin side only.  The flesh is protected from over cooking by the skin and is basically just poached in the butter.  It is eaten off the crisp skin, which you leave behind at the end.  The flavour of the sauce is a tangy, scented balance to the earthy trout.  It is simple to make and takes less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Two fillets from a 1 to 2 lb trout (divide a single fillet if you are lucky, or good enough to catch one of those Duncton Mill monsters)

• Unsalted butter - about 40g

• Dried tarragon - 2 teaspoons or as required

• Juice and some zest from one lemon

• Dry white wine - about 1 x 100ml

• Dijon mustard - a couple of teaspoons or as required

• Salt, black pepper to taste.

To prepare:

Having cut the fillets from the fish (see www.filleting-fish.com/trout-salmon or any of dozens of Youtube clips), wash them, dry with a towel, trim off belly fat/fins etc and remove any obvious bones.  Leave the skin on.

Heat half the butter in a flat pan big enough to take the two pieces of fish together without overlapping them.  When the butter is hot and foaming, place the fish in it (skin side down).  It may spit due to trapped water, so a spatter guard may be necessary to protect against flying hazards.  Turn down the heat to just maintain a steady fry without burning the butter too much.  The fish should be left this way up throughout the cooking.

                    

As the fish cooks you will see it colour up from the hot side - you should help the cooking along by using a small spoon to baste the hot butter from the pan onto the top to ensure that side gets cooked.  Repeat this every few minutes (between sips of wine perhaps).

Grind a little salt and black pepper onto the fish.
When the fish is cooked through (typically about 15 to 20 minutes) the skin will be completely crisp and the upper surface coloured and piping hot.  Transfer the fillets to a hot plate to keep them warm, leaving as much of the cooking butter behind in the pan as possible.

Place the pan back on a gentle heat and add the remaining butter.  Add also the lemon juice and zest, a little more salt and pepper and the tarragon (go steady it's quite a strong flavour).  Mix these together and then add the wine and finally the mustard.

Stir the whole lot together vigorously as it comes to the boil to ensure all the liquids, the butter and the mustard combine into a smooth sauce.  It takes just a minute or so to do this.  It should be about the texture of gravy, but you can adjust this to suit with more of less mustard or wine.  Reduce slightly to thicken as required.  Taste and finally season to suit your palate.

Put each cooked fillet of trout on a warm plate and pour over the sauce.  Serve alongside simple steamed vegetables with rice or new potatoes.

(any resemblance to other peoples’ recipes is entirely coincidental)

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