Recipes / Fish
Braaied whole trout with lemon and herb butter
Whole rainbow trout stuffed with lemon, onion and fresh herbs, cooked in a hinged grid over medium coals and served with melted lemon butter.
- Prep
- 20 min
- On the fire
- 16 min
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Lemon and herb butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with the burners on high and the lid closed for 10 minutes, then turn them down to medium so the lid thermometer settles at 175 to 200°C (350 to 400°F). Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Close the lid between turns. It cooks a little faster than an open braai, so start checking about 5 minutes early.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Rinse the trout inside and out and pat them very dry with paper towel.
- Cut 3 shallow slashes across each side of the fish, down to the bone. This helps the heat reach the thick part behind the head.
- Season the cavity with half the salt and pepper. Fill it with the lemon slices, onion and herb sprigs.
- Rub the outside of the fish with olive oil and season it with the rest of the salt and pepper.
- Lay the trout in a well-oiled hinged grid and close it firmly.
- Cook about 10 cm (4 inches) above medium coals for 7 to 8 minutes, until the skin is crisp and comes away from the grid.
- Turn the grid and cook the second side for 7 to 8 minutes. If the skin darkens too fast, raise the grid or move it to the cooler side of the fire.
- While the fish cooks, melt the butter with the garlic in a small pot at the edge of the fire. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, dill and chives.
- Open the grid carefully, lift the trout onto a platter and pour over the lemon butter.
Done when: the skin is crisp and blistered, the flesh at the thickest part is opaque and flakes off the backbone, and a thermometer pushed in behind the head reads 63°C (145°F).
Tips
- Oil the fish as well as the grid. Trout skin is thin and tears if it sticks.
- Smaller trout of about 350 g (12 oz) need only 5 to 6 minutes a side.
- Trout farms in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape sell whole fish. Outside South Africa, any whole rainbow trout or arctic char works.
Rainbow trout were brought to South Africa in the late 1800s and now live in cold mountain streams around Dullstroom, Rhodes and the Western Cape. Fly fishermen have long cooked their catch whole over a small fire next to the river. Trout is mild and rich, and a whole fish cooked on the bone stays moist. A hinged grid makes turning easy. For more on keeping fish in one piece, read braaiing fish.
Source
Adapted from Grilled Whole Rainbow Trout at Weekend at the Cottage and Lemon-and-herb butter stuffed trout at Woolworths TASTE.