Chef John: Alright, I don't know about you I am little tired of smoked salmons, so today we are doing smoked trout spread with a watermelon radish, and there is a four ounce piece of smoked trout. I think it's from Washington State, but I already threw away the packet, so I am not sure. Half a lemon and some fresh tarragon. Fresh tarragon, my all time favorite smoked fish herb, alright. That is just a cup of cream cheese, and in case you are wondering, no, I did not measure it. I have got some black pepper and I am going to sneak in some cayenne later, but that's pretty much the ingredients.
So now all these smoked trout, they always come with the skin, which is good because the oil in their skin really helps absorb that nice smoked flavor when they smoke it over the wood. So what you want to do, and this is cold of course, you are just going to peel that meat right off the skin, very simple. Now this should be completely boneless, but you never know.
So the first step here just kind of flank it up with your fingers, break it up roughly and if you do find any bone or anything which you wouldn't want to eat, pull it out. But this one in particular was – I didn't find anything. Alright, now what we are going to do, is we are going to take a fork and we are going to use the back of the fork and we are just going to mash down this plate. Now I don't want a smoked trout puree here, but I do want it fairly well smashed. So just go with the back of your fork -- and it will take a couple of minute, but that's pretty much what I want to get down to.
Now what we are going to do, is we are going to mix everything together. Yeah, this is a very complicated recipe by the way. So take your bowl with your cup of cream cheese approximately, your trout, I chopped up my two sprigs of tarragon, and I am going to squeeze in half a lemon, you see there, alright. Then a little pinch of black pepper, optional, chefs will always say optional, like, oh, I thought I had to. So that's optional, also optional some cayenne pepper. By the way cayenne very healthy for you, Google that some time. Mix it up with your spatula.
Now what the deal is here when you mix these kinds of spreads up, they get soft and I don't think the texture is perfect right after you mix them, so I always like to chill these in the fridge first before I serve them. You could put these out in a bowl and serve it with some toast, but what I am going to do, is I am going to pack them in these little ceramic ramekins, and just chill it for couple of hours, and then serve it. So I put these in these little say ceramic ramekins. I am going to put a piece a plastic over.
Now also this is not only does it keep it wrapped up, but it's also when I peel that off, it is going to give me a nice smooth surface, and I think I'll sprinkle little more cayenne on top later. That's pretty much it. So pop that in the fridge for an hour or two. Now here is something that's going to be so cool as a garnish, that's a watermelon radish, looks like a turnip. But check this out when I cut this in half length wise. It actually has a green outside, and just is really cool kind of red watermelony color inside, hence the name watermelon radish, and it's a radish, it tastes like a radish, very mild flavor, very delicious, Northern California, these are in the market now.
If you can't these, it's alright, you can use regular radish. But doesn't that look like a slice of watermelon. Alright, so I am going to slice that and this makes just such a perfect garnish for my smoked trout, a radish and trout, a very natural combination with any smoked fish by the way. So I am going to slice up watermelon like pieces, and here is where I was going to go nuts. I have got some black sesame seeds and we are just going to sprinkle those seeds onto those slices and we are going to make little miniature slices of watermelon and it's so cute. I am going to get emails, because about how cute this is. In fact, I am going to get emails, hey you jerk, I can't find watermelon radish, I am sorry. You can use regular radish I said. This is a product very common in Northern California and it's a nice interesting idea, I used to tell my students, great unique interesting ingredients, always make up for a lack of talent. So whenever you can use something little different, always go for it, and of course, if you have the talent also, then you are unstoppable.
Alright, so anyway, that's my smoked trout spread with some watermelon radish. I am going to serve this with some toasted bread, probably you can go low carb, and just eat up those radish tips, but either way, I hope you give it a try and enjoy.
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