Am Bratach No. 201
June 2008
editor@bratach.co.uk

The Inner Man
by Chris Duckham

At the restaurant we love to use the freshest local fish, and one of my personal favourites is sea trout. I somehow find it a much more interesting culinary alternative to salmon, and with the advantage, as far as selling it on the menu and presenting it to the customer is concerned, that it isn’t salmon. Salmon has generally become so widely available everywhere nowadays that it is no longer seen as a luxury, however high the quality, and it just doesn’t seem to sell on the menu at all. The quality of the local sea trout we have had recently though, has been fantastic and I have had no hesitation in recommending it to our customers.

The sea trout is a migratory variety of a species that includes brown trout, What sets it apart is that in some ways it is very salmon-like, The fish spends the greater part of its adult life in the sea, only returning to fresh water by way of revisiting the river in which it was hatched. It must be all the swimming about and time spent at sea which makes it closer to wild salmon in flavour and texture. I am told that some gourmets even prefer it to wild salmon.

What do we do with it in the kitchen? Well, being very like salmon it shares the same attribute of versatility. We use it hot, cold, marinated, seared and even recently with just a touch of smoke after marinating. Last summer it featured on our menu mainly as a main course with a topping of a fish mousse made with the trimmings and then topped again with langoustine tails. The finished dish was visually very attractive but a lot of work and there was always the problem of the delicate fish mousse coming gently adrift while pan-frying the fillets. This summer we are serving it in a small parfait jar with a little watercress cream, having first cured the fish with salt, sugar and lemon zest. At the last moment the jar is filled with smoke from oak chipping and the customer then opens it at the table. Pure theatre as smoke billows out across the dining room, but a lovely light smoky flavour to the fish as a result.

Chris runs the Cote du Nord restaurant at Kirtomy