Smoked Trout Dip

Lately we've been doing quite a bit of smoking.  That is, smoking meats.  I'm really behind on posting things, but I did want to get this recipe written down because it was super good and I want to be able to refer to it, and to share it.  We had been wanting to make our own smoked trout dip for a while, especially after the one that we liked at The Luggage Room got discontinued.  That one came with a stack of Saltines and was a must-order anytime we were there...I was so sad when they took it off the menu.  Last month, we had a bunch of holiday potlucks to attend and some Costco trout on hand, it was sort of the perfect opportunity to put our heads together and whip up the smoked trout dip of our dreams.

I didn't have much of an appreciation for smoking meats until I met Wes.  The smell of smoke at home never seemed to mean anything good back then... it was either a sign that something was getting burnt in the oven or that a paper towel got caught in the stove.  But anyway, Wes showed me just how wondrous a little smoke treatment can do to a slab of meat.  He's made turkey legs, brisket, ribs, and now trout.  I think that the trout would be my favorite so far, especially when chopped up and mixed into a dip that is very reminiscent (but not the same at all) of the one that we used to order.

We had some honey that my sister Margaret brought home from the Dominican Republic.  It came in a recycled glass bottle and it was made at a bee farm that she visited.  Our trout was cured in salt and white sugar, then glazed with this extremely liquidy, subtly sweet honey, and finally smoked with pecan wood.  Yum, nitrates.  Then, we chopped it all up and mixed it with some of our favorite things - like labne, green onions, celery, and capers.  The full recipe is below!

Ingredients

1 lb. steelhead trout
3 ribs of celery, diced
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup labne
1/3 tsp paprika
1/3 tsp celery salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons capers
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 of a small lemon or lime

1.  Get full filets of steelhead trout preferably with skin on.
2.  Coat in a mixture of equal parts salt and sugar to extract moisture and firm up the texture for about 20 minutes.  Rinse off.
3.  Glaze with a thin coat of honey.
4.  Smoke at 225 for 40 minutes to an hour until internal temp reaches 140.  Wes used pecan wood chips in an electric smoker.
5.  After the smoked trout cools, scrape the filets from the skin and use forks to shred it up.  Mix in all of the ingredients. 
6.  Serve with your favorite crackers.  Instead of using Saltines, we opted to have it with the same flat, brown, Scandinavian crisps that we often ate smoked fish with during our trip to Iceland.  I like how they taste a little like sourdough - there's a brand that makes them here in the U.S. called Finn Crisps.

More on smoking later!