A rare treat

My other birthday treat was a trout. I used to eat trout reasonably regularly back home in the UK. The sandwich shop near college did a particularly delicious smoked trout sandwich. And then there was another sandwich shop close to work which did a quite miraculous smoked trout and emmental panini. In fact, I would say that I took trout for granted. But no longer.

Trout is a restricted product in New Zealand. There are controls on importing foreign trout and on selling both local and imported trout. You just can't get it for love nor money. Except for love of fishing, that is. I don't love fishing, though it's on my list of things to do. Luckily, a friend's freezer was overflowing with fish caught by her husband and his father so I was the happy recipient of this little beast.



I baked it first, using the leftover liquid from this recipe for braised leeks and then added some more leeks and celery.

We only managed to eat one side of the beast for my birthday dinner and so I flaked off the other side and made potted trout from this recipe book, a thrifty purchase that I knew would come in handy...