smoking of the trout

This Saturday I was up early and as I knew I would be out and about (watching Germany beat Argentina) I was at the markets as the stall holders where putting up their stalls, so I really got the pick of the crop. That done, I went down to the trout lake owned by a footy mate, I could have dipped a hook in and got my own, but that to me isn't sport, the trout are so tame they will bite at anything, I just bought three nice 1 pounders, € 2,- each, had a coffee and chewed the cud with my mate and was back home before the temperature had risen much above 18°C.


 
I made my brine solution 6g salt to 1 ltr of water (4 ltrs in all), added three bay leaves, 10 crushed juniper berries, three crushed cardamom pods and a teaspoon of dried rosemary needles. Popped in the cleaned trout lid on and into the bottom of the fridge for 18 hours. (you can use a stronger brine solution and brine for a shorter length of time).

Sunday morning I was again up bright and early, I made my bread, heated up my smoker, took the trout out of the brine, washed under running water patted dry with kitchen paper. I added my smoking medium to the smoker (beech and herb mixture), put the trout into a hot smoke for 30 minutes and took out when they where done (pull the dorsel fin between thumb and finger, if it comes out with no resistance the fish is done).

At almost the same time the bread was also finished, so I had three fish and one large loaf a cooling on a rack.