Roasted Trout with Thyme

We’ve never had trout before. I used to go fishing off the end of the pier in the summer and ice fishing in the winter as a child and I could out fish the boys (much to their frustration!), but we never ate what we caught. We just threw it back because no one knew what to do with the fish! My partner’s fishing experience is much the same except his stories are a little more graphic and bloody!

Well, today this changed. We have an amazing new neighbour – an elderly man with a delightful youthful gleam in his eye who was a whaler in his younger years. He’s been telling us all sorts of adventurous stories and teaching us how to tie knots (this is very useful for my RNLI training!). He’s a very avid fisher and his eyes just light up when he talks about it. He’s going to teach us how to fish properly and prepare our catch for eating. He’s given us some trout he caught and so we try trout today for the first time. My partner selected Jamie Oliver’s recipe from his book The Naked Chef to be our first experience with trout which I scaled down to just serve the two of us.

We both loved it! Despite our inexperienced forkmanship trying to work our way around the little pesky bones (I’m still not sure there isn’t one or two in my throat!) we really enjoyed our meal. The fish was flaky, flavoursome and had quite a gamey taste to it. Even the children hovered around requesting bites of it (I’d fed them earlier with something a bit more kid-friendly). I’m looking forward to experimenting more with trout recipes.

I’ve entered this recipe into the Alphabakes challenge for August, a food blogging challenge alternately hosted by The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes. This month’s theme is the letter ‘T’.

Serves 2

2 wild trout, scaled and gutted
1 handful fresh thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
Maldon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon
2 bay leaves

Preheat oven as hot as it will go. Wash trout inside and out and pat dry. Mix and crush thyme with 1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt and the olive oil in a mortar and pestle. Rub thyme mixture into the trout, inside and out.  Cut lemons in half and stick a bay leaf into each half. Place trout and lemons on a baking tray and roast for approximately 10 minutes. The trout is cooked when the meat comes away from the bones easily. Serve with fish with the lemon on the side to squeeze over the top, sauteed potatoes and salad.