Sea Trout - Fry whole, or not fry at all?

[camerasforeyes]

Got a nice whole gutted sea trout for dinner on New Years, was thinking of cooking it like pla rad prig which is found a lot in southeast asian cookery.

Assuming these constants -

Large volume pot/container

Tons of fresh neutral oil

Accurate temperature measurement/volume of oil in order to retain temperature

Discarding of oil after first use

De-scaled and scored along the meat to allow accurate heat penetration

My question is - ?

Would frying an oily fish such as sea trout work?

Should I lightly flour the outside?

If so what should I use? - Having a lot of success with potato flour/MSG/salt combo at the moment for deep fried squid/prawns etc.. But is there something lighter? Maybe a dusting of cornflour without an egg coating underneath?

All I have found so far is the deep frying of a high oil content fish would render your oil useless. People have talked of frying whole salmon but never actually doing it. I don't want to waste it due to the cost. In all my cooking experiences I have never actually deep fried a hikari mono style fish, albeit a whole one.

Sea trout has a more delicate flesh than salmon but here in the UK has a similar taste. Failing these options I could bake, mi cuit in a temp controlled oil bath or cook en papillote.

Anyone done this before? Not sure about stepping into the void. Dinner will be cooked with sauteed gai lan, rice and tons of fried garlic sprinkled liberally.

Thanks in advance!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

1 - It will work, but I'd advise against deep-frying. You'll get better results in shallower oil, frying first one side of the fish and then the other. If you're talking about the kind of sea trout I'm thinking you are, it will respond better to this kind of treatment and it won't lose you the fish oils the same way.

2 - Yes.

3 - A light dusting of cornflour would be my choice, to crispy up the skin a bit without detracting from the fish's naturally lovely flavour.

[Blether]

Mackerel and herring are commonly shallow fried - as can be any fish. You'll need to be on the ball if you choose to cook your sea trout this way - it'll go quickly from just right, to dry and hard. See also: tuna steaks bought at restaurants that don't care.

This sort of treatment is fine for something like grouper that's mostly bones anyway - to me it seems a waste of sea trout. I'd bake it in foil in a very low oven - 120C, say. Then scatter on some brown-fried onion if I felt I couldn't do without some finger-lickin' crispness.

How big's the fish, anyway ?

[camerasforeyes]

Is proper sea trout, the anadromous version. I was just thinking of a shortcut version as I have only a couple hours of prep on arrival. I think best to either filet and then pan fry is a lashing of oil or slow cook in the oven/water bath as is suggested.

My only wonder is about frying it with a probe inside the flesh and then pulling it when it rises above 50 degC, presuming a 10 deg rise in latent heat and if that precaution would help to preserve the flesh?

It would be the most epic deep fried fish on the bone if it would work.

Also it is around 2.5 kgs or slightly less than 5.5lbs.

Edited December 30, 2013 by camerasforeyes (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

If you've got a probe that will stand up to that kind of treatment, it should work beautifully. I learned to do it by pressing the fish with my finger, and pulling just when it starts to feel springy instead of, well, fishy, if that makes sense.

[jayt90]

Is proper sea trout, the anadromous version. I was just thinking of a shortcut version as I have only a couple hours of prep on arrival. I think best to either filet and then pan fry is a lashing of oil or slow cook in the oven/water bath as is suggested.

My only wonder is about frying it with a probe inside the flesh and then pulling it when it rises above 50 degC, presuming a 10 deg rise in latent heat and if that precaution would help to preserve the flesh?

It would be the most epic deep fried fish on the bone if it would work.

Also it is around 2.5 kgs or slightly less than 5.5lbs.

Anadromous trout would be brown trout.

Sea trout on the east coast is also known as weakfish, spotted seatrout, and speck, but not brown trout.

Do you have a photo of your fish?

[catdaddy]

I'm thinking steamed with piles of fresh ginger and rice wine and a hot oil bath just before service.

[Blether]

It sounds like you know what you're doing, and why. Are you really going to deep fry, as opposed to the two-side fry in the Thai recipe ? (BTW have you watched any of those videos of folk deep-frying turkeys ?) What will you use to lift (& turn) the fish in one piece ? I'm guessing you're not concerned about losing a portion of tail meat to dryness.

jayt90, in the UK "brown trout" is used for the freshwater-only fish. The ones that have gone/been to the sea are called sea trout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_trout

http://www.fishbase.org/comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=238&GenusName=Salmo&SpeciesName=trutta&StockCode=252

[camerasforeyes]

Dinner was delayed until tonight so I think I will likely go with steamed now as going to be using the oil to fry some squid. Will have to wait for another go.

Thanks for all the replies, this is a great resource. For the probe I use a thermocouple with a metal chain cable so it can withstand heat. It is pretty good for lots of uses, recently worked perfectly for cheesecake to stop the egg protein setting too fast without having to open the oven to check temp/wobble with a thermapen or your eye.

Does anyone have any idea why you would not fry an oily fish other than to keep the oil fresh for future use? I imagine it is not as firm when done due to the muscle structure/fat distribution and so wouldn't work as finger food.