Sparkle Kitchen: Wilderness Trout
In this week’s Martin & Sylvia story "Goose Eye Wildnerness School", Martin wants to live in the woods and hunt for his own food, so his parents enroll him in a local wilderness school.
One of the easiest ways to hunt for and cook your own food in real life is to go fishing.
While fishing opportunities depend on where you live, many state-owned lakes and rivers are commonly stocked with fish like trout and bass. With a little research, a few poles, and the necessary fishing license and/or tag, even young anglers can catch their own dinner.
Of course, once you’ve caught a fish, you’ll need to humanely kill it and clean it. Trout is an easy fish for a first-timer, because it doesn’t have scales that need be removed, however—again, with a little research—you can find tutorials for your local fish online.
For trout, begin with a sharp knife, and decisively cut off the fish’s head just under it’s pectoral fin. (It’s the fin closest to the head on the fish’s belly.) Next, cut a slit up the belly to the fish’s vent. Then, use your hand to scoop out the internal organs from back to front. If you’ve done it correctly you’ll be left with a mostly whole fish, with a clean inner cavity. Rinse the fish and refrigerate in a baggie or leak-proof paper.
Try to eat the fish the same day, and stick with a simple preparation for cooking it so that the fresh flavor really comes through. I recommend stuffing the fish with lemon slices and fresh herbs, and cooking it over a campfire.
Here’s my favorite recipe.
Campfire Trout
(serves 4 adult appetites)
Ingredients
4 trout, as freshly caught as possible
2-3 lemons
A large bunch of mixed of fresh herbs, like rosemary, thyme, and sage
salt and pepper
cotton twine
Directions
These fish can be cooked on a campfire grate or a grill. Either way, you’ll want to start the fire 30 minutes to an hour beforehand, so that you get some nice, hot coals. Once the coals are almost ready you can begin preparing the fish.
Reserving just a few stems to use for garnish later, dice most of the herbs finely. Add about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper to the herbs, and mix to make a seasoning blend. Slice the lemons into thick rounds.
With a sharp knife, make about five, diagonal, shallow slash marks into the skin of each fish. Stuff the fish with the herb blend and several lemon slices. If your fish are small, you may have to cut the lemon slices in half. Placing a stem of the reserved garnish herbs on top, use the cotton twine to tie the fish closed.
Once all the fish are stuffed and tied, lay them out on your pre-heated grill or grate. The size of your fish will dictate the cooking time, but it should be in the ballpark of 20 minutes. Turn the fish once during cooking. You’ll know the fish are done when they flake when tested with a fork.
Happy fishing!
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About the Author
Meryl Carver-Allmond
The Sparkle Kitchen Series is created by Meryl Carver-Allmond.
Meryl lives in a hundred-year-old house near the prairie with her sweet husband, two preschoolers, one puppy, one gecko, and about ten chickens. While she's been writing since she could pick up a pen, in recent years she's discovered the joy of photography, too. She feels lucky to be able to combine those skills, along with a third passion — showing people that cooking for themselves can be healthy and fun — in her Sparkle Kitchen posts.
