Last summer, while leafing through the July issue of Cooking Light, my attention was caught by a gorgeous photo of a salad featuring smoked trout, watercress and fresh orange slices. The accompanying recipe promised to be delicious and, although I had never cooked a trout, much less smoked one, I decided this was something we definitely needed to try. The magazine article included instructions on how to smoke trout at home, using a gas grill, and the directions made the process sound remarkably easy.
And it was! In fact, the only difficult thing about the whole procedure was attempting to locate the dressed whole rainbow trout called for in the magazine. The fresh seafood options in our small Ohio town are fairly limited, and we can merely dream of the vast selection available in big city fish markets, such as that at Seattle's famous Pike Place Market (as seen in the photo above, from a visit there last fall). I never did find whole rainbow trout, but was able to purchase large filets of the same, which worked out just fine as a substitute.
Once I had ingredients in hand, the process was easy as could be. Per the instructions, I brined the fish overnight in a solution made of water, brown sugar, salt and other seasonings. The following day, an hour before cooking the trout, we soaked two cups of wood chips in water. (The recipe did not specify what type of wood to use, but we went with hickory chips, a little bag of which I found in the grilling section at our local Meijer store.) After draining the wood chips and preparing the grill as directed, we tossed the fish on the grate, closed the lid and waited to see what resulted.
It turned out that the smoking process took quite a bit longer than the 15 minutes stated in the instructions, but the wait was definitely worth it. We were rewarded with flaky pieces of succulent trout, the taste of which was slightly sweet but at the same time a bit salty and smoky, and altogether delicious.
We never did make the salad that inspired the whole endeavor, as the distraction of looking for whole trout and wood chips at the grocery store caused me to forget both the watercress and the oranges. We did, however, enjoy some of the smoked trout in a nice Caesar salad, and then polished off the rest the following day, eaten on top of toasted bagels slathered with cream cheese. Mmm, mmm good!
Fast forward a year, when it occurred to me last week that we really should smoke some more fish. That thought was quickly followed by the realization that, in our deep freeze, we possessed a shrink-wrapped hunk of gorgeous pink salmon filets, caught by our friend Tony on an Alaskan fishing trip last fall, and generously gifted to us upon his return. Figuring that what's good for the trout is also good for the salmon (or so I hoped), I pulled the salmon from the freezer and, once thawed, went about prepping it in the same manner we had prepared the trout.
First, it soaked in the brine overnight...
and then onto the grill it went, the following day.
Once it smoked for about 90 minutes, the salmon turned out perfectly done.
After peeling the skin off the back of the salmon and flaking it into small pieces, we opted to once again enjoy our smoked fish in a classic way, on bagels with cream cheese. Oriental Ramen Salad turned out to be an excellent side to serve up with this easy, but oh-so-delicious meal. And that's no fish story!
Set forth below are the directions we used both times we smoked fish at home, taken right out of the magazine. Following that are some notes stemming from our own experience, including a couple little tweaks we made, as well as a few extra details on the cooking process.
Smoked Trout (Cooking Light)
Brine:
3 cups boiling water
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 (4-inch) orange rind strips
Remaining Ingredients:
2 (10-ounce) dressed whole rainbow trout
2 cups wood chips
Cooking spray
To prepare brine, combined 3 cups (boiling) water, sugar, salt, pepper, thyme, and rind in a large bowl; stir until sugar and salt dissolve. Combine water mixture and fish in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Soak wood chips in water 1 hour. Drain well.
Prepare grill for indirect grilling, heating one side to medium-high and leaving one side with no heat. Pierce bottom of a disposable aluminum foil pan several times with the tip of a knife. Place pan on heated side of grill; add wood chips to pan.
Remove fish from brine; discard bring. Rinse fish with cold water; pat dry with paper towels.
Coat grill rack with cooking spray; place on grill. Place fish, skin side down, on unheated side; cover and grill 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Flake fish with fork. Discard skin. Yield: 3 cups flaked trout meat.
Notes:
(1) Because I forgot to get oranges the first time, and couldn't be bothered to buy one the second time, we used about a teaspoon of grated, dried orange peel in the marinade in lieu of the orange rind strips. (I'm referring to the dried orange peel that's available by the jar in the spice section of any grocery store, which we happened to already have on hand.)
(2) Other than the orange peel substitution, I made the marinade exactly as specified. However, after I mixed the ingredients and dissolved the salt and brown sugar in the boiling water, I let the hot brine cool to close to room temp before I poured it over the fish. While the instructions do not touch upon this, I was concerned that pouring near-boiling water over the fish would cause the delicate fish to cook a little bit, which definitely seemed like something that should be avoided.
(3) If you use the cooking spray, by all means do not spray it on the grill grate if the grate is in place on the heated or heating grill, unless you want to risk a visit by the local fire department. To avoid this whole issue, and so we did not have to worry about the fish sticking to the grill, we set the fish on a single piece of foil for the duration of the cooking process.
(4) Because "medium-high" heat, as called for in the directions, can vary widely depending on a number of factors, I did a little research online before we did smoked the salmon this last time and, based upon what I read, heated our grill only to medium-low (using just the back burner) to achieve a cooking temp of around 200 degrees, and then maintained that temperature for the duration of the cooking time.
(5) As to cooking time, we thought from the get-go that 15 minutes really did not sound adequate in which to fully smoke the filets we used each time, much less a whole fish. In doing the salmon recently, we ended up cooking it for about an hour and a half, checking it every 15 minutes or so after the first half hour, and taking it off the grill when it would flake easily when probed with a fork, but making sure we did not overcook it.
Enjoy!
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