Smoked Trout & Leek Quiche with olive oil &wine pastry

Trout is readily available from the rivers of the Carpathians or yes to be honest nowadays the fish farms that dot the valleys. Anyhow its a local fish that has not flown half way round the world to be here and I like using it. It works well with the mild flavour of leeks and the result is a sweet very savoury tart.

Ingredients – for quite a deep 20cm quiche

1 olive oil and wine pastry case [link to recipe]

2 fat fillets of smoked trout or 1 fairly large smoked trout

4 eggs

400ml 3.5% milk or a mix of cream and milk

fresh herbs, bits of rucola. Nice herbs are parsley and dill. Tarragon would be great and very Transylvanian but not with the dill as they would compete. be generous with the greenery

half a leek extremely finely chopped (so you dont need to cook it first)

some salt and pepper

How To

Chop up all your herbs and the leeks and sprinkle into the quiche case

With your fingers roughly break up the smoked trout and place on top of the greenery

Mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper gently with a fork and pour over the trout & herbs

Press down any “floating” bits of greenery because if they stick out they will burn. However some sort of haphazard, bits poking out look is nice

Cook at 160-170C gently until browned on top and the middle of the quiche no longer wobbles. It will rise up souffle like and then as it cools down setttle down.

Serve warm with a celeriac, carrot and apple salad and I fancy a nice glass of Feteasca Regala with it…

Carpathian Trout Ceviche

My first encounter with ceviche proper was on a hitchhiking jaunt to Mexico – happier and safer days then. Every day seemed peppered with ceviche plates, or ceviche plates were peppered every day? However I choose to remember it, the flavors are front of mind still: bright perfumy cilantro, sweet raw onions, hot chilies, same day fish swimming in lime juice with sometimes tomatoes, sometimes cucumbers, sometimes avocado.

You need really fresh fish to make any kind of ceviche. So when fresh trout presented themselves in the “Cheile Dimbovicoara” (although hard to say who looked more unhappy at the prospect of custom, the owner or the fish themselves) a fresh, light, summery ceviche was a must.

With a seed sown on an inspirational “fish preserving” course in Italy (local fish, orange juice, olive oil marinade served with orange and fennel salad) here is a version that uses local bounty (robust parsley, fresh red onions, sweet tomatoes and “ardei iute”).

Continue reading “Carpathian Trout Ceviche”

Baked “Pastrav Afumat” (Smoked Trout) fishcakes

These fishcakes are the posh version of the smoked mackerel fishcake (same method and quantities) and are just a little bit more subtle and refined. Romania teems with decent trout and its easy to find the smoked version. I often flake it into a rucola salad and add some citrus slices and a light vinaigrette for a fast lunch or dinner party starter. But as a comfort food you can’t beat the combination of mashed potato, smoked fish and a crunchy coating. The beauty of this recipe is that it can be served as a starter with a tzatiki sauce or as a main course with some green salad, crudités or a beetroot salad.

These are easy to make and instead of frying them, I bake them, which reduces the fat content dramatically, stops your kitchen smelling like a fish and chip shop and lets you do other things while they bake!

Gadgets & Gizmos

A baking tray, a potato masher is handy but a fork will do

Ingredients: serves four

600g of mashed potato (no butter or milk added)

200g smoked trout

A bunch of parsley roughly chopped

A bunch of spring onions finely chopped

Some lemon zest (1 lemon)

Salt and pepper

1 egg for the mixture

1 egg for the coating process beaten in a shallow bowl

1 packet of breadcrumbs, ‘panko” if you can find them, or home made slightly coarse ones.

You can also flavor with horseradish or tarragon – whatever your favorite fish flavorings are.

How To

Cut and peel the potatoes (approx 650-700g before peeling and cooking) and boil in salted water.

As the potatoes boil, line the baking tray with aluminum foil or baking paper. Brush with oil. (do this before your hands are covered in potato fish mixture, which of course I have never tried to do at all).

Beat the one egg in a shallow bowl.

Cover a plate with a thick layer of breadcrumbs.

Cook the potatoes until they are nice and soft and “mash-able”. Drain them and mash/crush with a fork. They do not need to be a perfect puree- a little potato texture is nice here. Don’t be tempted to blend or blitz or else you will end up with potato glue – handy for wallpapering but not what we want here. The potato mash should cool down fairly quickly – I speed things up by running cold water over them as I drain them in a colander. The mix should be cool when you add the fish.

Flake the fish, keeping an eye out for bones. Do this with your fingers because then you are more likely to feel any errant bones.

Mix in the parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper and one egg

Scoop into little patties and mold with your hands.

With a fork and spoon dip into the beaten egg mixture and drop carefully onto the breadcrumbs. Roll around (the fishcakes not you) until coated and place on the baking tray.

Bake for 30 mins at 180C. You may need to turn them over once to achieve an even golden color on both sides.

Enjoy with a tzatiki sauce or even a tahini and coriander sauce as pictured here due to the yoghurt running out. Garnish with lemon wedges if you want extra lemon flavor.