After you have caught the fish
Fresh Trout on the Menu.
If you have even an average day at Meon Springs, you will come away with a number of trout and what you do with them is as an important a part as the fishing experience itself.
Firstly, you need to take good care of your trout as soon as it is landed on the bank.
Despatch of the trout quickly, using your priest and either immediately take it up to the fishing lodge and put it in the fridge or, if you’ve got one, hang it in the water with a fish stringer (if you don’t have one, we sell them at the fishery).
When you get home you will need to gut the fish.
Whichever way you do this, you need to end up with a fish with no guts and (this bit can be forgotten if you don’t know about it) no blood left in the bloodline, which runs along the back of the fish.
For details of how to do this, take a look at this video on youtube.
Cooking your trout on the campfire
In the wild, trout would be caught and cooked on the campfire and if you are staying at our Yurt Village, you can re create that experience there.
Simply put a bit of butter, salt and pepper on the fish, wrap it in aluminium foil and put it on the hot coals of a campfire. This is a very simple method, but produces one of the best results for cooked trout ever.
Smoking your trout
If you’ve got a big one, you may like to get it smoked. You can do this yourself by using a Bradley Smoker or you can get it collected by Test Valley Smokery from Meon Springs.
Making trout Pate
Ingredients:
- 1 x 1-2 lbs of well boned, cooked, cold trout
- 1 x head of celery
- 2 x medium onions
- 2 x tbsp Hellman's mayonnaise
- 2 x tbsp lemon juice
Method:
- If frozen, thaw fish overnight, and cook as follows:
- Cook the trout for 6 minutes at high in a 700 W microwave, or check cooking instructions if different power rating. Alternatively, cover in foil and cook in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool. Remove skin from one side of fish and strip flesh carefully from bones. Turn fish and repeat for other side. If care is taken the flesh can be removed leaving the majority of bones behind - to make sure fork the flesh in a bowl, removing all remaining bones.
- Wash and dry the celery and coarsely grate in a food processor or grater. Remove and discard the fibrous strands. If a finer pate is required, the celery can be pulped in a blender. Finally, strain to remove most, but not all the juice* and place in a clean receptacle in case required later.
- Repeat the above process for the onions, again retaining some of the juice* separately.
- Mix all the ingredients with a spoon, adding the lemon juice and mayonnaise, season to taste.
- The pate can be served right away, adding a sprig of parsley, with toast or biscuits, as a starter. Or: place in ramekins and cover with a little melted butter to seal (as they do with posh pates). Leave to set, cover with cling film, and freeze. Remove 2 hours before required.
* It is better to make the initial mix with most of the fluid removed from the onion and celery, but if the pate appears too dry, add some of the juice saved from the straining (if no juice is removed, the mixture tends to be too runny).
Other trout Recipes
I could write out loads of trout recipes on this page, however if you click the below link, you will find over 70 different ideas of things you can do with a trout.
Giving your trout away
Invariably, as you get more successful as an angler, you will end up catching more trout than you know what to do with. This is the time to start giving them away. Give them to your non angling friends or try taking them to your local pub in exchange for a pint or two.
Alternatively, you can always leave them at Meon Springs and we will distribute them amongst people who work on the farm.