Smoked-salmon blinis and “dill-laden gravadlax” have long been a “party staple” but, in recent years, it’s trout that’s had a “surge in popularity” among professional chefs and home cooks, said Tomé Morrissy-Swan in The Observer.
Sales of trout have leapt by 36% year-on-year at Waitrose, far outstripping the store’s 10% increase in salmon sales. Raw trout saw the largest rise, up more than 60%, according to figures cited by the paper. And, at Ocado, trout sales have risen by 54% in the past year, compared to 9% for salmon.
The “delicate nature of trout makes it very versatile” for home cooking, Paul Gamble, Waitrose’s senior brand development chef, told The Observer. Low in saturated fat and high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, it’s a healthy choice, too.
Many restaurant chefs have “ditched salmon” for trout and other fish, due to concerns over antibiotic use, sea-lice outbreaks and unethical fishing practices at salmon farms. Over the past two decades, the number of wild Atlantic salmon in Scottish rivers has declined by 70%: an alarming figure, partly linked to the rise in industrial salmon farming. More than 300 chefs have now joined the WildFish conservation charity’s Off the Table campaign, pledging to remove farmed salmon from their menus entirely.
Rainbow trout, reared in England’s “fast-flowing chalk streams” are a more “eco-friendly option”, said Amanda Jones in The Telegraph. They are farmed in freshwater ponds instead of overcrowded open-net pens, to minimise stress for the fish and reduce environmental damage.
Trout can be used as a substitute for salmon in most dishes. Keep an eye out for “rainbow, brown or sea trout, either fresh, hot-smoked or cured”, and put it in everything from “simple salads” to tasty jacket potato toppings.
For a simple recipe that can be prepped in under 10 minutes, Diana Henry in The Telegraph suggested baking trout fillets in the oven and serving with a generous spoonful of “crab cream” – a delicious mix of crème fraîche, mayonnaise, chilli, lime juice, coriander and white crabmeat.
The BBC‘s Elly Curshen recommended whipping up an easy “teriyaki marinade” to coat trout fillets before oven-roasting them, and serving it all up with stir-fried greens, white rice and a sprinkling of chopped spring onions and toasted sesame seeds.
If you’re looking for something heartier, Tim Dowling in The Guardian, who tried replacing the red meat in classic dishes with oily fish, found a trout lasagne “very good”. A “straightforward layering of lasagne sheets, béchamel, spinach, leeks and smoked trout”, it’s easy to make, surprisingly tasty and “suited to a cold winter night”.