Trout is the cleanest fish. She will never live in dirty water with sewage, she carefully chooses her habitat, which cannot but affect the quality of the product.
To retain the maximum benefits from this red fish, you need to cook it properly. One of the ideal options is grilling. If you marinate trout correctly, it will turn out simply magical!
Grilled trout - general cooking principles
On sale you can find trout steaks, whole carcasses, fillets with or without skin. All of these can be used for grilling, but the timing will vary. The fish must be prepared first: scrape the skin, remove all excess, and rinse thoroughly. If the ridge sticks out, then it needs to be leveled with the level of the pulp so that the piece lies flat on the grill grate. Prepared fish is always marinated.
What does trout go with:
• citruses;
• honey;
• soy sauce;
• ginger.
Fish spices, herbs, ginger, and vegetable oil are often added to marinades. The fish is rubbed or poured. It is important to cover the vessel so that the pieces do not dry out. If you plan to marinate the trout for several hours, it is better to put it in the refrigerator or take it out to the balcony.
Trout cooks perfectly on any electric grill, over hot coals, as well as on a regular grill pan. The time depends on the method chosen, as well as the size of the pieces and temperature, but red fish bakes very quickly. If it has been in the marinade for a long time, then a few minutes on each side is enough. It is important not to dry out the trout.
How to cook trout: in steak, in foil, whole
- It is customary to divide large fish into portioned pieces.
- If you come across medium-sized carcasses, you can send them to the coals without cutting them.
- Baking in food foil has both its supporters and opponents. But we agree that this method will never lose its popularity. Why? The fact is that a thin metal shell protects the most delicate fish from exposure to intense heat, prevents the skin from burning and the flesh from becoming dry.
Which method should I choose? It all depends on your preferences and skills. If you are used to frying steaks - fry them, if you constantly cook in foil and you are good at it - use this option. Still, we advise you to deviate from your usual scenario at least once in your life and try something new.
- Do not remove the skin when cutting trout into portions. It keeps the pulp tender and helps retain juice.
- If you want to place several steaks or small fish on the coals at once, use a special grill. It is equipped with a non-stick coating and the material is stainless steel.
- Start roasting when the coal is covered with ash - “grey”.
- Do you think that only basil goes well with it? Try other seasonings: cumin, rosemary, sage, lemon balm.
- Before marinating, make shallow cuts on the carcass, if you are preparing it whole - carefully, without bringing the tip of the knife to the ridge.
- If you filled it and are afraid that additional ingredients will fall out during frying, use skewers.
- Before starting cooking, do not forget to grease the skin with oil, pepper, salt and seasonings - if the marinade was based on olive oil, you can use it.
- The optimal distance from the heat is 5-7 cm. At the same time, the temperature should not be too high so that the pulp does not dry out.
- During frying, you can sprinkle with dry wine or remaining dressing from time to time.
- On average, baking takes from 15 to 20 minutes. It all depends on the size - if you are cooking a large carcass, you will have to wait longer.
- Don't forget to turn over - either the grill or the steaks. 1-2 times is enough.
- How do you know when a dish is ready? Pierce the flesh. If whitish juice starts flowing, it’s time to set the table.
- To achieve a stable temperature, stir the coals periodically.
Grilled trout with lemon
Lemon juice is an ideal addition for any sea and river fish, including grilled trout. The dish is very simple to prepare, but incredibly tender, juicy, and aromatic.
Ingredients
• 2 trout steaks;
• salt, peppercorns;
• 1 lemon;
• 1 tbsp. l. olive oil.
Preparation
1. Take peppercorns, 5-8 of them are enough, put them in a mortar and grind them to a powder. There will be an amazing aroma; this cannot happen in ground spices from a bag.
2. Add a couple of pinches of salt to the pepper and mix.
3. Wash the trout steaks and wipe dry with napkins.
4. Rub the pieces with a mixture of salt and pepper.
5. Squeeze the juice from the lemon. First we water the fish on one side, then on the other. Leave for at least 20 minutes. Let it marinate.
6. Take the fish out of the bowl, take olive oil, rub it over the cuts on both sides so that a beautiful crust appears on the steaks.
7. Place the trout on a preheated grill or on a grate over hot coals. Cook until nicely browned on one side.
8. Turn over and wait until the second side is also baked.
9. Immediately transfer the fish to serving plates; they should already have vegetables and herbs on them. Place thin slices of lemon on top of the trout.
Classic whole recipe
Electric grilled trout, recipes for which include a minimum amount of ingredients, can be prepared at home.
Electric grilled trout, whole recipe.
What ingredients will you need?
The list of ingredients is presented in the table below:
Ingredient name | Quantity |
Trout | 2-3 pcs. 200-300 g. |
Salt and pepper | Taste |
Step-by-step cooking process
The process of cooking trout on an electric grill takes only 15-20 minutes:
- First you need to prepare the trout itself. The fish should be thoroughly washed under cold running water and gutted, and then dried with paper towels.
- Next, the fish should be salted and peppered, thoroughly seasoning with spices inside and on both sides.
- The trout should be left to marinate for 10-15 minutes, and while it is marinating, you can preheat the grill.
- The electric grill must be turned on and the fish frying mode selected. The grill should be heated for 2-3 minutes. depending on the set power.
- Next, the prepared trout should be placed entirely on the grill surface and covered with parchment paper on top and bottom. This will keep the grill panels clean.
- Close the grill lid and bake the fish for 5-6 minutes. from each side.
The finished fish is soft and releases juice when pressed.
What can I add?
Baked trout can be seasoned with different spices depending on preference. It is common to use a compound fish seasoning that includes a mixture of parsley, fennel and pepper, but these ingredients can also be added to the fish separately. Trout, like any other fish, goes well with vegetables and lemon juice.
Grilled trout in soy sauce
Soy sauce is ideal for trout; fish marinates in it quickly. The recipe calls for balsamic vinegar. You can take a little wine or apple, it will also turn out delicious.
Ingredients
• 0.6 kg trout;
• 80 ml soy sauce;
• 30 ml wine vinegar;
• a little coriander, literally 5-7 grains.
Preparation
1. Grind coriander in a mortar, mix with soy sauce, add wine vinegar. Set the marinade aside.
2. Rinse the fish. If there is anything extra on the carcass, you need to carefully clean it off or trim it with a knife. Cut crosswise into 1-2 cm pieces and make steaks.
3. Pour the marinade over the trout and place in a bowl. Simply pour the rest of the sauce on top.
4. Cover the dish and leave for an hour. No need to put in the refrigerator.
5. Remove the trout from the marinade. Take paper towels and remove all the moisture.
6. Transfer the fish pieces to the grill. Cook the trout on both sides until golden brown.
7. Transfer the fish from the grill to a plate and serve with parsley and lemon. Serve immediately, but it also remains very tasty when cold.
Trout recipe
We offer a simple recipe for grilled trout with pre-marination. For the recipe you will need:
- 1-2 tbsp. olive oil;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- fresh rosemary.
Combine oil with seasonings to create a marinade. Place portioned pieces on it, apply liquid over the entire surface and leave in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. Place the fish on the grill (follow the tips at the end of the article) and fry for 7-8 minutes on both sides. Rosemary in the recipe can be replaced with other spices.
Grilled fish goes well with baked and fresh vegetables, boiled and fried potatoes. We offer a step-by-step recipe for an interesting side dish:
- Rinse a glass of quinoa, add water (2 times more than cereal), boil until the liquid disappears;
- cut zucchini, bell pepper/paprika, carrots, onions into cubes, crush garlic, fry with oil;
- combine ingredients, add salt, serve with fish.
Use different cooking recipes and get unique tastes.
River trout should be prepared in compliance with several rules. They will help you avoid annoying mistakes - burning, drying out, sticking, loss of shape or taste:
- do not remove the skin, otherwise the cooked piece will separate and lose juice and tenderness;
- when cooking several steaks at the same time, use a special grill with a non-stick coating, because the meat of this fish is very tender;
- start grilling only when the coal turns gray (covered with ash);
- experiment with herbs - try grilling rainbow trout with cumin, rosemary, sage, lemon balm;
- when frying whole fish on a barbecue, make cuts along the sides of the carcass (not reaching the ridge);
- if you want to quickly fry small pieces of fish with vegetables, use skewers rather than a wire rack, as over time the food will fry and may fall over the edge;
- before frying, grease the skin to obtain a golden crust, use vegetable oil for this, or a marinade if it was based on olive oil, sprinkle the skin with pepper, salt and seasonings;
- the optimal grill distance from the coals is 5-7 cm, the temperature should be moderate so that the dish does not dry out;
- It is permissible to sprinkle the pulp with dry white wine during barbecuing;
- cook the fish for no more than 20 minutes;
- To determine readiness, use a toothpick - if whitish juice flows out, the meat is ready.
Grilled or barbecued river trout turns out very tender and flavorful, especially if you follow the recipe and useful tips. If this is not your first time cooking, and you already know how meat behaves on fire, give free rein to experiments - new marinades and spices will help diversify the tastes.
I’m not a fan of remembering some, let’s say, intimate aspects of my life, but so be it, I’ll tell you, especially since yesterday a friend brought me a couple of kilograms of Sevan trout, which awakened these memories of mine. You listen, and along the way, in parentheses, I’ll describe how to cook trout
on the grill in the oven, so to speak, a la grill. Thus, as they say, we will kill two birds with one stone: we will bake a fish and learn about history.
(gut the trout, but you don’t have to remove the scales - it will bake quite well, since it’s tender)
So. Somewhere after my fourth year, I went for an internship at a large-circulation newspaper that served a huge all-Union construction project in the foothills of Kyrgyzstan. There they built a hydroelectric dam on a mountain river. There is nothing to tell about the large circulation itself, since this kind of newspaper looked more like a combat leaflet, but the editors were curious.
It was based in one room of the Construction Administration and consisted of an editor - an elderly, fat and very funny Jew named Aron Moiseevich, and an employee simply called Shurka. She was about thirty at that time and a journalist, as I became convinced later, she was quite strong. My career didn’t work out because of my husband, who was imprisoned for something and worked the rest of his sentence here, in chemistry. In the construction village, as empty as a cap (not a tree or a bush), separate barracks were allocated for the “chemists”.
(now we cut each trout with a knife crosswise on both sides - this will allow the meat to better absorb the marinade)
But, in fact, I didn’t care much about Shurka’s past life, although now, looking back on the years I’ve lived, I’ll note: I was incredibly lucky with women who were older than me. Without lying at all, I admit: each in its own way, they left their own piece of warmth in me.
Shurka interested me... it’s clear from what side. Not only was she, I would say, a tragically beautiful woman (this is the type of incredibly attractive person you think about every second, so much so that without seeing them, you are ready to climb the wall out of contempt for your own weaknesses and the complete disconnection of your mind and feelings), she made contact quite easily (I tell you, I was lucky!) and, as soon as I appeared in print, she immediately took patronage over me.
(place the cut trout in a suitable bowl and generously, not forgetting the torn belly, rub each fish with salt and freshly ground, of course, black pepper)
I’ll immediately skip the details of journalistic life, trips to brigades, long arguments with Moiseich, who was afraid of everything, as well as Shurkin’s attacks on Moiseich, who accused me of maximalism - this is unnecessary. It was not out of place that Shurka’s and my tables stood head-on and I, to my satisfaction, often felt her gaze on me, which was very different from the look at the furniture.
At these moments, so as not to take Shurka by surprise and, moreover, not to frighten her, I wrote something with concentration (there were no computers then, and manuscripts were simply transferred to the management machinery bureau), cursing Moiseich in a low voice. But I felt an incredible elation from the faint realization that a pretty woman clearly treats you not only as a colleague who came here for a couple of months.
(now, using a food processor, blender or meat grinder, grind two medium onions, one lime or lemon and a clove of garlic to smithereens. Season the pulp formed from onions, limes and garlic with two or three spoons of good cognac or brandy. Good, I emphasize, because this very important!)
After work, since there was nothing to do in the village anyway, I usually went to the Kurshab River, which flows directly from the site of the dam under construction, and tried to fish. “I tried” - because the current was furious, and under the shore, where the movement of the waters slowed down, there were constant snags, since the slopes were reinforced with roughly heaped limestone. However, rarely, but luck smiled on me, and I pulled out fish, which the locals called “marinka”. It was no larger than the palm of your hand and was similar in shape to our chub. I caught it for fun, since the marinka’s caviar and belly membrane are highly poisonous.
(now we transfer the mixture seasoned with cognac onto the trout and, as in the case of salt and pepper, generously rub the fish with this mixture on all sides, throwing the mixture into the belly. Then we tightly cover the prepared fish with a suitable lid or foil and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes)
And then one day (five days after my appearance at the editorial office) Shurka asked me to take her with me, which, on the one hand, puzzled me (after all, she has a husband in the village of “chemists”), on the other hand, it made me incredibly happy.
Well, what can I tell you, dear friends! Yes, you yourself won’t let me lie: the rotation of everyday life so depersonalizes and makes our life flat that “today” cannot be distinguished from “yesterday”, and the current year from the previous year. All of our “everything” is pressed into some kind of monotonous lump without smell, color, memories and sensations.
But thank God that sometimes something comes from our far away - in relief, in detail, with accurately reflected light and texture in the form of dusty foliage, the hot movement of the wind and the taste of water in which sand is felt... That’s how I “texturedly” feel it an evening with Shurka on the shore - a student intern and an adult, one might say, woman, whose relationship is built on jokes that sooner or later end.
(we will bake the trout on a wire rack in the oven, but so that, on the one hand, the fish does not stick to the wire rack, on the other, so that the oven does not smoke from fat and juice dripping from the fish, on the third, so that the fish remains juicy, and with fourth - so that at the same time we have a good base for the sauce. That is, along with the grill on which the fish will be, there will also be a baking sheet filled with hot water in the oven)
It is no coincidence that I mentioned water with sand. Shurka made fun of my attempts to catch at least one fish so defiantly that I, throwing the fishing rod aside and shouting “Now I’ll show you how to fish,” dived into Kurshab with my clothes on. I didn't intend to drown myself. Just a year earlier, when I was practicing in a neighboring area, local boys showed me how to catch fish with their hands between sunken blocks of limestone.
A strong current immediately carried me 50 meters down, and I realized that I would have to work hard to “moor” to the shore. Frightened Shurka ran parallel, but every wave of my hand, piercing the coffee-colored water of Kurshab, seemed to only separate us. And yet, having rolled downstream almost half a kilometer, I got to the shore. - What a fool you are! – Shurka shouted, pulling off my wet shirt. It was funny to me, I spat, feeling the sand on my teeth. But laughter made me laugh even more when Shurka unbuttoned my trousers and began to take them off from top to bottom, kneeling down. - You're just a complete fool!
(before placing the marinated trout on the grill, lightly grease each fish, or rather the side that will lie on the grill, with good vegetable oil)
Once again I will bypass the next few days, filled with meaningless routine, with the exception of one “but”: Shurka stopped joking. No, she, as before, made fun of Moiseich, took lightly the daily chores of layout, duty in the printing house, where at that time there was still linotype and hot casting of newspaper forms. Shurka stopped joking with me. Therefore, I took her proposal quite seriously: “Do you want to catch a real trout?” – I want (“live”, that is, fried trout, I only saw it as a child in a restaurant on the shore of Lake Ritsa in Abkhazia). “Aron Moiseevich,” Shurka turned to Moiseevich, who was eavesdropping on our conversation. – Shall we take the Moscow guest to the trout fishery?
(we will place a small piece of butter on the cuts in the carcass of each trout facing us, since the fish works great with such butter, and we will pour the remaining marinade onto a baking sheet with water, which we have already prepared for work and defense...
...push the grill with the trout into the upper part of the oven, preheated to 170 degrees, and the baking sheet with water and marinade into the lower part. In my oven, the fish reached perfect condition - that is, it was well browned - in about 30 minutes, while, of course, the evaporating moisture and pieces of butter did not allow it to dry out. This is when you can turn off the oven, open the door slightly so that the fish comes to its senses slightly, and pour the contents of the baking sheet into the frying pan, add 50 grams of butter and evaporate the remaining moisture, correcting the excess acid with a pinch of granulated sugar. Then pour in another 50-70 grams of that same good cognac or brandy and set it on fire to remove the alcohol. An excellent sauce for fish, one might say, is ready)
When Moiseich left, promising to return for us the next day, I, frankly speaking, did not think about any trout. It is unlikely that such thoughtlessness was facilitated by the remote gorge in the area of Lake Sagdiunkur, where there was no one for tens of kilometers around. Or - a sluggish mountain stream that you could simply jump over (what kind of trout could there be there?).
I thought about how we would spend the night in the same tent in the middle of this wilderness, because decisions, due to the fact that I was a man, still needed to be made by me. But, apparently, until that moment I simply didn’t know Shurka well. In the evening, without saying a word, she simply took off my shirt - just like when I took a bath in the Kurshab river. And – trousers. We just stood facing each other for a while, so close that I thought I could hear her heart beating. From the outside it must have looked comical - a boy in shorts and a casually dressed woman next to him.
And yet it’s good that Shurka started first: otherwise I might have thought that she, like a caring mother, just wanted to put me to bed...
(I’m upset for some reason, dear friends. I’ll finish here. The finished fish in the bottom picture was slightly “decorated” by kitchen lamps. But such is the property of electricity - to make objects more elegant. But overall, this is a beautiful fish. Like the light of eyes that are not neither chandeliers nor lamps are needed.)
Grilled honey trout
There are a huge number of options for marinade with honey. They often add soy sauce and onions, but trout is best complemented with lemon juice.
Ingredients
• 3 pieces of fish;
• 2 lemons;
• 50 g honey;
• salt.
Preparation
1. Honey needs to be melted so that it becomes liquid and easily combines with other ingredients.
2. Rinse the lemons. Cut 3 slices, set aside, they are needed for serving.
3. Squeeze the juice out of the remaining citrus fruits and strain through a strainer to get rid of any pulp and seeds that may have gotten in.
4. Combine lemon juice with previously melted honey. Dissolve.
5. Wash the trout pieces, dry them and rub with salt.
6. Pour honey marinade over the fish, cover and leave for at least half an hour.
7. Remove the trout, shake off any droplets from the pieces, and place on the prepared grill.
8. Cook the delicious fish until golden brown. It will appear quite quickly, since the marinade contains honey.
9. Serve the trout pieces immediately, adding previously set aside lemon slices and any fresh herbs.
Grilled trout - useful tips and tricks
• There is no need to add a lot of ready-made fish seasonings from a bag to the trout. Usually the mixtures have too pronounced an aroma; it will overshadow the natural, delicate smell of red fish.
• If the trout is grilled with slices of fresh lemon. There shouldn’t be too much of it, otherwise bitterness may appear from the crusts and the dish will simply be ruined.
• Grilled fish is usually served with fresh vegetables, but it also tastes delicious with baked tomatoes and peppers. You can cook young eggplants. It is better to pre-marinate vegetables, like trout.
Useful links: