Mr. Neighbor caught his limit yesterday at Lake Roosevelt, WA (where the Spokane River, west of Spokane, joins an impoundment area of the Columbia River that was created by the Grand Coulee Dam).  If that sounds confusing, then you are normal. When he returned home, he surprised us with two giant trouts—each 16-18 inches long and 1 ½- 2 pounds each.  So tonight we cooked one, and frankly we could only eat half of it.     

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Q:  What are you doing with the cooked fish that you didn’t finish eating?

A:  It will be saved for some savory trout canapes or fishcakes or breakfast. (Report: it was amazing for breakfast with a side of scrambled eggs.)

Q: What are you doing with the second fish? 

A:  I IQF’d it and vacuum packed it in the freezer for a later special meal.

Q:  Aren’t you worried about lead and mercury from the toxins of old silver mining in Coeur D’Alene (CDA) leaching into the water and poisoning the fish?

A:  This is more of an issue upstream near CDA.  The latest advice on this is to not eat regularly of fish from the area, but to not be overly concerned. 

Q:  Were these farm-raised fish that were seeded into Lake Roosevelt?

A:  My understanding is that they were raised from eggs in hatcheries near or on the river, then released when fry.  So, no, they aren’t farmed in the classic sense of the word.  For an interesting account of this, read Indian Creek Chronicles—about seeding salmon into a tributary in Idaho.  The fish we enjoyed tonight are, however, likely triploid trout, which are not GMO, but likely have had heat or pressure interference during the egg incubation phase to make them infertile.

Q:  Are you concerned about that?

A:  No.  While influenced by man, this same triploid characteristic can be produced in nature.  It doesn’t require any meddling gene splicing or Frankenfood toxic impacts.  To find out why this is a desired effect, we’d need to do more research.

Q:  How did it taste?

A:  Nice and sweet and buttery. 

Q: What are the weird things you are grilling with the trout in the pictures below?

A: Tomato halved, onion and asparagus. I doused these with garlic and lemon butter when served.

Below are pictures of our grilling adventure.  We wanted to do these on our Big Green Egg, but the freezing weather had frozen it shut, so we transitioned to our trusty, portable Weber propane grill.  I had to cut off the head of the trout, as the fish was too long to fit!  (Gave the cooked head to the chickens!)

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No specific recipe given.  If you are interested in cooking times (all with cover on): 

• 5 min at high, 5 min at low; 
• Turn over and 5 min at low, 5 min at medium;
• Turn off and turn over;
• 5 min to set before serving.   
• Serve stuffed with lots of lemons and rosemary, garlic butter, salt and pepper.

Thank you, Mr. (Wonderful) Neighbor!

Stay briny,

–Stacey