My goal when cooking whole rainbow trout, red snapper or even salmon fillets, is to get the skin nice and crispy without overcooking the flesh.
This stuffed whole rainbow trout recipe does give the nice crispy skin, with a very moist and flavourful flesh. If you have a barbeque, definitely use it for this. If not, putting the fish on a raised rack on a baking pan in the oven worked alright.
Note that the stuffing in this is just to infuse the trout with flavours. Aside from the garlic, you probably don’t want to eat any of it, and of course you can vary the ingredients as you like. I’ve also made a fabulous whole red snapper with large chunks of fresh ginger, but I didn’t have any on hand for this rainbow trout.
Ingredients
Stuffed Rainbow Trout
- Rainbow Trout, 2 whole, about a pound each
- Seasoned Salt
- Cracked or coarsely ground Black Pepper
- Olive Oil
- Lemon, a quarter cut in half
For the stuffing:
- Garlic cloves, 8 to 10, just cracked
- Lemon Grass, 2 or 3 stalks, cut in one-inch pieces and then split
- Shallots, 2, rough chopped
- Fennel stalks and fronds, split and in one-inch pieces
- Cilantro, a good handful with stems, chopped
Cooking Method
Tip:
You could slice off just the filets after cooking and reserve the carcass, head and tail for fish stock, especially if your guests will be turned off by the whole fish.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Rinse the rainbow trout and pat dry.
- Rub the trout inside and out with olive oil, lemon juice, coarse cracked pepper and a bit seasoned salt.
- Stuff the cavities of each trout with equal amounts of all of the other ingredients, including the squeezed lemon pieces.
- Place the fish on a rack on a baking sheet and sprinkle the outside of the trout liberally with season salt and cracked pepper.
- Bake 45 minutes or so depending on size of fish, until the trout’s skin is well browned.
I love fresh rainbow trout and red snapper with couscous and asparagus.
Leave a comment below to let me know how you and your dinner guests enjoy this or any of my recipes!
