Newspaper trout

This isn't so much a recipe, more of a method for cooking trout. I was told about it by a fellow fishing from a bridge over the river Slaney. The fact he was fishing from the bridge & a story he told me about phoning fish(*) lead me to believe he was actually a poacher. Mind you since he had a bag of fresh river trout and this is a simple goto method for cooking trout, I'm happy to over look it.

You'll need some trout, 1 medium trout per person is the right amount in my kitchen, you might like to go for a larger trout & share between 2. Several sheets of newspaper, 1 sheet of broadsheet or 2 of tabloid is about right per fish. Seasonings e.g. salt,pepper, parsley or other fresh herbs. Gut (or get the fishmonger to) the trout and wash out the cavity, then stuff it with what ever you fancy (I'm using a little butter & a couple of lemon wedges).

Wrap the trout to make a nice parcel and then soak it through. Do this after wrapping the trout, doing it before will just leave you in a mess of papier mâché.

Then it goes under the grill, onto the BBQ or into a hot oven (gas 6 or equivalent). If you aren't using the oven you'll need to flip the parcels half way through the cooking (so after 5-8 mins). Once the paper is dry (and beginning to singe) the fish is cooked. This is where this method scores highly, as you unwrap, you'll find the skin sticks to the paper. The flesh should just come away from the bones, with a bit of patience/practice you can remove the fillets intact, usually at this point I'm too eager to get eating. That's all there is too it, perfectly cooked trout time & time again.

The Salad leaves on the right are the first produce from my micro salad garden (which unfortunately got devastated by the rain that started hammering down about an hour after I'd finished eating). Give this method for cooking trout a go, its easy & the results are very tasty.

(*) The fact he was fishing from the bridge, gives a clue that he wasn't entirely on the level, due to the very weird laws we have in England & Ireland about river ownership. By fishing from the bridge he wasn't trespassing, though he probably had no right to the fish. Phoning fish is definitely dodgy, but this act was carried out by a "friend" of his. An army surplus field telephone, a boat & a net are required. You drop the wire from the phone into the water over the side of your boat and crank like mad. The resulting current stuns the surrounding fish and you scoop them out with your net.