Smoked trout with couscous salad
Ingredients
- BRINE
- 1L (4 cups) water
- 125ml (½ cup) coarse salt
- 2 fresh trout
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 30ml (2 tbsp) fresh dill, chopped
- 30ml (2 tbsp) olive oil
- COUSCOUS SALAD
- 375ml (1½ cups) water
- a pinch of salt
- 20g (2 tbsp) butter
- 125ml (½ cup) couscous
- 1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
- ½ yellow pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- a dash of ground cinnamon
- 5ml (1 tsp) brown sugar
- 15ml (1 tbsp) fresh mint, roughly chopped
- 7ml fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 5ml (1 tsp) grated orange or naartjie zest
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 15ml (1 tbsp) orange juice
- 10ml (2 tsp) olive oil
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
For the brine, combine the water and salt in a large saucepan and boil for 30 minutes. Cool down to chilling point.
Rinse the trout in cold water, skin, debone and fillet the fish. Place the fillets in the brine for 15 minutes. Remove from the brine and place on a baking tray. Combine the garlic cloves, dill and olive oil, and brush the mixture onto the fillets.
To smoke the fillets, prepare a fire in a kettle braai. When the fire is hot, add wood chips to an aluminium pan and place alongside the smoking coals (carefully, as the fire will still be hot and the chips will begin to smoke).
Place the baking tray with the trout onto the grid and close the kettle braai with the lid. Smoke for 7 – 10 minutes, remove from the braai and set aside.
For the couscous, bring water to a boil in a saucepan, add a pinch of salt, the butter and couscous. The couscous will absorb the water, but break it up with a fork to create loose grains.
Combine couscous with the remaining ingredients, season and mix well.
Serve the couscous salad with the smoked trout fillets.
