Fried Salted Sea Trout

Last weekend we spent some time with Andrew in Los Angeles and visited a Korean supermarket. They had salted wild sea trout for sale and I couldn't pass it up.

I've never eaten sea trout and I've always wanted to try it. Sea trout is also known as salmon trout, and is a form of brown trout that spends much of its life in the ocean before returning to freshwater to spawn. Sea trout is one of the 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die (Frances Case, p. 365).  1001 indicates that the flesh is soft pink because of its diet of crustaceans and that it tastes similar to salmon, but is more creamy. 

I found a recipe for pan-fried sea trout, peas & chorizo fricassee by Gordon Ramsey. I wasn't sure how much salt had been used to prepare the trout I purchased, but I decided to treat it as though it had not been salted. I followed the part of the recipe that related to the preparation of the trout. I scored the skin of the trout at close intervals and then put on generous portions of sea salt and black pepper. 

I put some butter and a little canola oil in a frying pan, got the butter melted and put the trout in the pan, skin-side down. I fried it about 8 minutes, then turned the trout over to the non-skin side and squeezed half a Meyer lemon on to the fish and cooked it for another minute, basting it with the lemony pan juices. I turned off the heat and left the fish in the pan. 

The fish was cooked perfectly, a nice bit of crisp on the outside and wonderfully moist on the inside. 

It is a very mild fish and the salt and pepper spiced it up nicely. The recipe was fantastic. Judy said it was a little salty for her, I'm sure a consequence of the salting before I purchased it, but I thought it was just right and I look forward to trying sea trout again.