Nice catch. I hope they released the thing. They take forever to grow.
I’m usually the drinker not the chef around the campfire but I’m observant.
Have a few trout filets skin on sort of butterflied.
Just dust em with flour and fry over medium in skillet w butter skin side first then flip and finish ?
Simple tastes here with the eaters. I have lemon and parsley and garlic.
Any tips? Was thinking cornbread stuffing but I want to make sure fish is good so prob just cornbread itself.
Cheers
Butter or EVOO would be great. Not sure why you’d dust them with flour. Starting skin side down and wait for the fish to become opaque to about half way up before flipping.
Lemon, parsley and garlic sounds great.
Cornbread seems a little heavy with trout. I like mine with green veggies like asparagus/broccoli/green beans/creamed spinach, and sliced roasted potatoes. If I wanted bread I’d do a buttered, toasted slice of sourdough.
Just suggestions… so enjoy whatever you decide on.
Thanks. Easier no flour. Oil makes sense too. Appreciate the tips and timing on the flipping.
there is a proven approach to pan frying fish without tearing it to pieces.
the pan and fat/oil has to be hot. the bread crumb trick works, if one is unable to judge hot…
if making a spatter mess is not a problem, flick a few drops of water into the hot pan&oil; if the water explodes&spatters, that’s a good temp . . .
dry the skin side of the fish - pat dry with paper/cloth towel.
why the flour? lightly flouring the skin side ensures it is, in fact, dry.
why dry? heat+water+protein=glue.
dealing with skinless filets - the “make it dry” bit is even more important.
put the fish skin side down into the pan. within 60-90 seconds you should be able to shake the pan and the fish will slide around. if the fish is “stuck” after 60-90 seconds, you’re not doing it right.
Ah, smelt! When I was a kid (from about ages 4-9), my brother, two cousins, and I used to go to a nearby marina in Palo Alto (CA) and catch smelt by the bucketful. We’d take them back and leave them with our grandmother and by dinner time, she’d have all of them fried up as the main course for dinner for 10. I think those meals were particularly satisfying for our grandfather, who, in his younger days, had been a commercial fisherman. He really enjoyed knowing that his grandsons caught all the fish on the table.
Very rewarding pastime. Just made some last month.
High Sierra trout, clean river or lake smelt and salmon of any kind and then steelhead, even tho it goes to the sea. We were once gifted a bunch of trout on a high Sierra backpack trip when our group (25 teens)
came across somebody’s campfire that had not been put out properly. After our labors some nice fishermen passed through, saw what we had done and gave us most of their catch. We had pilot bread (crackers), black pepper and a Gerry tube of margarine and made a memorable meal.
Dang. Memories. We used to catch tons of sunfish and fry them up with salt and pepper!
