Grand Gumbo

Living the Grand Life for me includes a weekly fishing trip with friends. I like pan fried trout. I like it cooked in foil on the grill, or even straight on the grate. I like it formed into cakes and fried. But, I'm always looking for new ways to cook it.

I wanted to try and incorporate it into some fish stew and soups. Looking at some gumbo recipes, I noticed that almost anything can be added to the basic stock, including chicken, catfish and alligator. So why not trout?

None of these steps are hard, but they do take some time. The house will be full of good smells and the dinner will be worth the time and effort.

Recipe # 41 Trout Gumbo

Basic Gumbo Stock
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup flour
1 green pepper
1 large onion
2 celery stalks
1 can tomatoes (crushed or stewed)
1 cup of chicken stock (or water and a bouillon cube)
1/2 cup cheap white wine (beer would work here, too )
1/2 or 1 pound sausage. (Andouille, smoked, or Italian)
Cajun spice mix like Essence of Emeril)

In a large saute pan cook and/or brown sausage. Cut into 1/2 inch

slices. Remove from pan and drain grease if necessary. Add oil and flour, mix and slowly cook over low heat until the roux is a light brown color. Stir constantly. Take time with this step.

When the roux is the desired color remove from heat. Let it cool while chopping the vegetables. The three vegetables from the trinity in Cajun cooking and are an essential component of Cajun dishes.

Add the trinity to the roux and slowly cook until the vegetables soften. Add a tablespoon of spice mix while the vegetables cook.

When the vegetables have softened, deglaze the pan with the wine. Add the can of tomatoes and the chicken stock. Add the sausage. Let the mixture simmer covered for at least 30 minutes.

At this point, almost anything could be added. Chicken breast will cook in the hot liquid, as will shrimp, crawfish or trout.

To cook the trout, I cleaned and skinned each fish. The whole fish

was placed in the simmering broth. The fish will cook in 5 to 10 minutes. Once cooked, the fish is easily pushed of the skeleton and all the bones can be lifted out. Stir and serve with cooked rice.

An alternate method of cooking the fish can be found here: Easy trout. After the fish is microwaved, and the skin and bones removed, it can be added to the gumbo.