Smoked Trout

Cowie is such a hero. She puts up with a lot from me. She very kindly gave me a smoker for Christmas and it has taken me the best part of 9 months to let it loose! But it was seriously worth the wait and effort.

First of all I carried it back over Christmas to Bedford on the train along with loads of other things. Then I brought it back to London. Then I moved house and took it to Cowie's house. Then I took it to work so I could then take it on the train to Somerset. On each occasion the trains couldn't have been busier.

So it was quite a momentous moment to fire up the badger and smoke the living daylights out of two unsuspecting rainbow trout whilst camping in North Devon.

Although we found it nearly impossible to get the burners alight we somehow managed to generate enough smoke to transform these two beauties...



into gorgeous, warm, smokey fish...



The flesh was so delicious and a lot more subtle than the smoked salmon and mackerel you get in supermarkets. It's also a real treat to eat it greedily with your fingers straight from the smoker. There's something very back to basics about the whole thing. Next weekend we are going to smoke some mackerel form Lyme Regis. And I can't wait!