Fish and veggies are both seriously elevated when cooked over fire, and this recipe's SUPER easy but absolutely delicious.
Perfect crispy skin, charred vegetables and beautifully balanced flavours,
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes (plus firelighting)
Serving suggestions: jacket potatoes, pasta salad, potato salad… or all three!
Ingredients
Trout
4 trout fillets – ideally thicker cut fillets of a uniform shape & size
Tablespoon cold pressed rapeseed oil
Tablespoon sea salt
Lettuce & Courgette Salad
4 baby gem lettuces
2 large courgettes
3 tablespoon rapeseed oil
½ teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt & pepper
Dill Créme Fraiche
3 tablespoon crème fraiche
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
½ a lemon
Pinch of salt & pepper
Garnish
3 tablespoons frozen peas, defrosted
½ teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
¼ bulb of fennel
Fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
Fresh dill leaves, roughly chopped
½ a lemon
Method
Liberally salt the trout and leave skin side up in the fridge, ideally a couple of hours before you plan to cook, worst case before you light your fire – this will draw moisture out and help achieve delicious crispy skin.
Light your fire – this is a reasonably short cook, so one good bed of embers should get you through, with a searing side and a roasting side. I use a mix of beech splits for embers and apple wood for the beautiful sweet smoke.
Pat the skin side of the trout dry and brush both skin and flesh sides with a small amount of rapeseed oil.
While your wood fire’s burning to embers, prepare the lettuce, courgette, dressing, dill crème fraiche and garnish.
Halve each gem lettuce, lightly brush with a small amount of rapeseed oil and set aside.
Cut the courgettes in half, then split each half into quarters lengthways, season with salt, brush with a small amount of rapeseed oil and set aside.
To make the dressing, whisk the honey, mustard, vinegar and 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil together with a pinch of salt and pepper, taste, adjust the seasoning and set aside.
To make the dill creme fraiche, mix the creme fraiche, chopped dill and lemon juice together, season with salt and pepper; taste, adjust the seasoning and set aside.
For the garnish, add the frozen peas to a bowl and cover with cold water, set aside to defrost.
Once the coal bed’s ready to cook, add the courgette directly over the hottest part of the fire, turning regularly until the it’s nicely charred all over, around 3-5 minutes, then move to a cooler part of the fire to soften and cook through.
In the space recently vacated by the courgette, place the fish skin side down over the hottest part of the fire.
Keep a close eye on the trout and flip when the skin’s coloured with golden brown spots & some char, roughly 3-4 minutes; continue to cook on the flesh side for 3-4 minutes over the hottest part of the fire.
Add the halved lettuce alongside the trout over the hottest part of the fire and cook until charred, turning and repeating on all sides – around 5 minutes total.
Flip the trout fillets onto their sides and cook for another minute or so, then flip to the other side, at which point the trout should have reached a core temperature of 63°C. You’re going to break down the salmon over the finished dish so don’t panic if you struggle keeping the fish whole when handling.
Remove the salmon from the fire and rest, skin side up and uncovered on a wooden board, while you bring the dish together – if the salmon hits 63°C more quickly, it can rest for longer.
Chop the stalks out of the gem lettuce, roughly chop into large chunks, toss through the courgette batons and the honey & mustard dressing, then add to a large serving plate.
Use a mandolin or vegetable peeler to shave slithers of fresh fennel over the lettuce and courgette, and scatter over the peas.
Generously flake the salmon over the vegetables and dollop the dill crème fraiche over the top.
Sprinkle over the crushed chilli flakes and a generous squeeze of lemon juice before finishing with some roughly chopped fresh mint and dill leaves.
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