Trout!

Bill and Joe had a great Opening Day. 

They were on the water at 6:00 am and around 8:30 or just before that, Bill called to say they’d be packing it up soon – they’d caught more than their limit and would maybe fish for another half hour, just for fun, and then head back, with ten trout.  I think there were 7 rainbow and 3 brown.  Or maybe it was 8 and 2.  The largest, a rainbow, was about 17” long.

And the weather was perfect – kind of cold at first (ice on the eyes of their fishing poles – but once the sun came up and was on their backs, they were mostly comfortable.  (Wet hands always feel colder, so they weren’t entirely comfortable.

But they were successful, and so they were happy.

Once the fish were home, Bill filleted five and Joe gutted the other five.  We made a fish stock with some of the heads and spines and some onion, celery and carrots…

Bill saved the small sacks of roe (eggs) he found in some of the fish, and he saved a couple of heads for me to cook up for Julia.  You know, so she could eat the eyes.

Let’s see…I cooked up some Jasmine rice…Bill put the trout on the grill (first 3, then the other 2 – they wouldn’t all fit comfortably together), and I sauteed the fillets in browned butter and sage.  (Sorry, no picture – we were all too hungry to wait any longer.)

Lunch was a feast.

Oh, and the stock?  The main reason we made that is because we’re conducting a little experiment. 

We want to freeze more seafood this year.  But in the past, whenever we freeze fish, we don’t like the way the cell structure changes – the texture is different.  But – when we freeze quahogs and conch in broth, they taste like we just cooked them, and the texture is also fresh.

So…we made the stock, strained it, and cooled it.  And then I put a cooked piece of trout in one freezer bag and a raw fillet in another bag.  I added 2 cups of stock to each bag, pressed out the air, and stuck them in the freezer.

Later today, we’ll thaw them both and see how the texture is – or isn’t – affected.  And once that’s sorted out, we’ll know how we want to freeze any other fish we catch this year.

I’ll let you know what we find out, too. 

Oh – and yesterday morning, Bill took Alex fishing.  Same spot.  Same success.

Well, they only brought 4 home – we don’t NEED another ten trout.  It would be kind of greedy.

But – best part – Alex caught 3 of the 4.  Yay, Alex!

Bill filleted those, too, and later today, after we learn the results of our little experiment, we’ll either freeze them raw in the stock Bill made yesterday, or I’ll cook them and then we’ll freeze them.

OH, and this morning a little recipe idea popped into my mind.  A use for some of the leftover smoked trout.  Look for that post within the next few days – I’m hoping to make it either today or tomorrow, depending on how much time I have. 

For now, I’m just trying to catch up on all the regular old household chores that didn’t get done over the weekend!  We were all pretty busy.

How was your weekend?

Comments

[Pudding Pie Lane]

These photos are strangely disturbing but also mesmerising at the same time... :)

I used to eat fish eyes when I was little, I thought they gave me extra super brain power :D