Fresh Caught Grilled Trout, Mushroom Wine Sauce
Proving this is no ‘fish tale’ the J-Dude, reeled in one heck of a good sized trout up at the Poconos last weekend. I’m thinking his abilities might be hereditary from Mom, Sooky, who since as a little girl could catch a fish merely putting the hook into the water masterfully maneuvering the might of any struggle and pulling it right on up into the net waiting off the side of the boat.
Check out this colorful, speckled beauty. On this same day, Sooky snagged a few huge sized bass and one small colorful brook trout whose size seemed hardly worth the cooking effort, but the bass will be an upcoming post in a nice stew I’m preparing tonight with some fresh potatoes yanked from the garden alongside some fresh clipped kale or Swiss chard (the latter depending on what the rabbits and deer have helped themselves to over the past couple of days.)
Besides providing the ‘Catch of the Day,’ the J-Dude then prepared our special dish for the evening stuffing the trout with lots of fresh thyme and oregano clipped right out of the planters on the deck and wrapping the whole fish with strips of smoked center-cut bacon. Easy enough.
The trout doesn’t appear to be smiling like my Grandson. Dinner. Dinner. A fine Trout Dinner.
While the trout was in it’s grilling stages, we closed the lid and went just inside to throw the mushrooms into the pan and prepare the Mushroom Wine Sauce which took around ten minutes.
We used a combined batch of crimini and shiitake mushrooms providing a tasty earthy flavor mixed with lemon, white wine and the butter. You know what they say everything is better with butter. Or is that bacon? Either way we’ve got both ingredients covered.
It hardly gets better than ‘stream to table,’ well besides the big ole’ smile of satisfaction in having provided the day’s meal, and, of course, proving, this is no fish tale.
Cooking with Kids, Fresh Caught Grilled Trout, Mushroom Wine Sauce Sauce
Ingredients
- 4-5 pound trout, gutted, cleaned
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 25 fresh clipped thyme sprigs, more or less, washed, kept whole, plus a couple for garnish
- 12-15 fresh clipped oregano sprigs, washed, kept whole
- 8 strips smoked center cut bacon
- 3/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced, blend of crimini and shiitake
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup white wine
- juice from one lemon, strained
- 2 tablespoons half and half
- 8 tablespoons butter cut into bits, chilled until finish
- few pinches coarse kosher salt
- few grinds cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat grill to medium temperature. Generously grease grill grates. Grease a separate grilling or fish grilling tray long enough to hold the trout for cooking. Pat fish dry, Place fish onto the greased grill tray with a parchment paper sheet underneath to catch any drippings in the preparation. Open center of trout and brush olive oil across the length on both sides, sprinkle with a few pinches salt and pepper all across, evenly tuck in the thyme and oregano stems. Firmly wrap the bacon all around the body from the top of the head to the base of the tail. Tug the parchment sheet from beneath the trout and set trout onto the grill tray, discard parchment. Grill fish around 7 minutes with the lid closed before using a long spatula to flip the trout and grilling another 7 minutes, more or less, until cooked through and meat easily flakes off the skin. Remove trout from grill and carefully slide onto a serving platter.
- Preparing the Mushroom Wine Sauce: Heat a large sized saute pan on medium high temperature, add in 3 tablespoons butter, swirl around to melt, tumble in the mushrooms letting them sizzle and cook for a minute or two before shaking pan or stirring, sprinkle over a couple pinches salt and pepper and continue cooking another 2-3 minutes. Pour in the white wine and the lemon juice letting the liquid reduce by half, stir in the half and half, cook for two minutes then a bit at a time begin whisking in the butter, check seasoning and adjust to taste.
- Assembling and Serving the Trout: Spoon sauce and mushrooms evenly across the top of the grilled trout. Garnish with Thyme Sprigs
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