Smoked Trout - Fourth of July Chattahoochee Bounty!!

I received a call late on the 4th of July from my distinguished friend, Dave Caudell, that he had some beautiful Georgia rainbow trout caught that day that were just begging to be smoked.  He had hit his limit for the day and wanted to make sure that his fish would not go to waste.  After a late night, post-fireworks rendezvous the trout were securely in my possession, and I began to ponder how to honor their grand sacrifice. 

I hadn't ever attempted a smoked fish spread, but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up.  I fired up the smoker on the 5th and got to work.  I knew that smoking fish required a delicate touch and strived to keep the cooker under 200 degrees.  Three hours later, I had a nice batch of apple wood smoked, fishy goodness. 

It took everything I had to not sit down and eat the entire batch of warm, smoked fish. If you haven't tried smoking your own fish, I urge you to.  It's extremely simple and well worth the charcoal.  The next step was to figure out how to make a smoked spread out of the trout.  Lacking a good recipe or a clue, I just made my smoked trout spread the same way I make my chicken salad.  The picture to the left is the total yield of 2 cups.   It's best to remove the meat from the fish while it is still warm.  The flesh separates very easily from the skin and all you have to do is flake through it and pick out the bones.

BBQgeek's Smoked Trout Spread

2 cups smoked trout, 1 half lemon, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh chives, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, one chopped shallot, 1 to 2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce, 1 tablespoon mayo, 1/4 cup water

Take one cup of the smoked trout and place it in a food processor and reserve the remaining one cup of trout.  Combine the remaining ingredients in the processor except for the water.  Process the ingredients to a puree then slowly drizzle the water into the puree.  Remove the puree from the processor and place in a bowl.  Fold the reserved trout into the puree.  Cover and refrigerate.  Serve with crackers.  Enjoy.

Special thanks again to David Caudell of Roswell, GA (just down the road from that salad dressing, race car driving guy) for inspiring this post.

Comments

[scott sapp]

sounds like a great trout dip recipe i am anxious to try it. i have toyed with the notion a time or two, and usually come up short. the fokls at southern highlands seafood in blue ridge ga have a dandy offering of this treat we stock up on each visit.

[Drew Kleinhans]

Is that Dave Caudell of Roswell?

[Mike Fincham]

Yes it is - The greatest fisherman/landscape specialist/banjo player/trombone player I know.