Trout is pretty easy to come by in South Carolina. It’s pretty cheap, too. Yet, for some unknown reason, I almost never buy it. I decided I’d finally learn how to cook whole trout. I remembered seeing a great-looking recipe in Bon Appétit that featured bacon-wrapped trout, so I thought I’d follow that method.
There are basically three ways to prepare trout:
- Cleaned, bone-in
- Cleaned, boneless
- Filleted
I decided to cook these cleaned, boneless, which meant that I had two issues to overcome; I had to learn how to debone a fish, and I had to convince the wife to eat something that had eyes looking back at her while she did it.
These were my trout.
I deboned them according to these instructions.
You can see the progress here.
There’s really no recipe here. I just seasoned the cavity with roughly chopped rosemary, garlic, olive oil, smoked sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Then I stuffed them with sliced, seeded lemons.
Next, I seasoned the skin of the fish with olive oil, salt, and pepper. To hold it all together, I wrapped them in bacon.
I tossed these fish over a 400° grilling surface and turned them a few times to ensure that they cooked evenly.
Finally, I served them over some Israeli couscous.
These were good. The bacon added a nice seasoning to the skin, but I think I’ll just fillet and smoke them next time. That, or I’ll try deboning them after I’ve cooked them.
