Smoked Ocean Trout, Beetroot Hummus and Lemon Kale Salad

Smoked Ocean Trout loves this beetroot hummus and lemon kale and so will you. This is a great recipe that makes a simple starter

Do you have a little book of restaurants and cafes you’d love to visit in your city or in other cities too? I do.  I look at the pictures and read the descriptions of the food and wonder what each dish would be like, and if I’ll ever get to eat it before the chef moves on or the place closes. Some pictures and descriptions of food are just so inspiring I just have to make them. I usually end up making my very own version of it.

This is what happened when I saw a dish from Blackwood Pantry on Lorraines blog last week when she did a round up of all things delicious in Sydney’s beachside suburb, Cronulla. I loved the look of it so much I wanted to create my own. It’s a beauty of a late summer dish and I am very pleased with the results. You could make this on a platter as a serve yourself entree ( appetiser) while you BBQ the rest of dinner or maybe just leave them to it while you finish off  cooking and know they will love this.

Of course mine is not as refined and beautiful as the one at Blackwood Pantry and it is made out of hot Smoked Petuna Ocean Trout rather than coconut poached salmon, but it makes for a quick and easy dish to pull together once you have all the bits ready. It has a beetroot hummus, toasted pepita seeds, basil oil, Kewpie ( Japanese) mayonnaise and wilted kale softened off in preserved lemon dressing. The skin from the trout has been crackled up in the pan and sprinkled over the top. It’s quite delicious really.

Petuna is a Tasmanian brand, a company started by a husband and wife Peter and Una Rockwell, who combined their names “Petuna”to start a fishing and Aquaculture business. Some of their huge business can be seen in Strahan on the South West coast of Tasmania. This is a remote town with a colourful convict past and where wilderness waters running off the Franklin-Gordon Rivers connect with the salt water of the Great Southern Ocean. Boat Cruises in the wild water harbour take you past some of the aquaculture farm pens where large Salmon and Trout spend their days growing, and seals and birds spend their energies trying to get a free feed.

This hot smoked Salmon and Ocean Trout are new for them. Petuna specifically developed the breeding of fish with fat marbling and a specific body shape, originally to accommodate the needs of Chef Tetsuya Wakuda. It’s smoked over tasmanian Oak.  It is available from seafood stores.

Strachan, West Coast Tasmania

This recipe can be made with any Hot Smoked Trout or Salmon but I like the way Petuna is cooked so it is still moist and lightly smoked.

Smoked Ocean Trout, Beetroot Hummus and Lemon Kale

I am using a beetroot powder to make this hummus. You could substitute 1/2 cup fresh cooked beetroot or 1/2 cup of drained canned beetroot if you can’t find powdered.

5 from 2 votes

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Course Salad

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 300 gm Hot smoked Ocean Trout or Salmon skin removed flesh broken into nice big chunks and set aside, 2 packets

Basil Oil

• 1 bunch basil leaves picked
• 250 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 cup

Lemon Kale

• 1/2 bunch Kale the hard rib stalks removed. Cut into large chunks and don’t worry if they are wet.
• 60 ml water approximately
• 2 tablespoons preserved lemon rind finely chopped
• 10 ml rice vinegar or white balsamic
• 20 ml olive oil 1 Tablespoon

Hummus

• 400 gm chickpeas drained (1 can)
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 tablespoons Tahini heaped
• 2 Tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 Tablespoons preserved lemon rind chopped
• 80 ml lemon Juice 4 Tablespoons
• 3 Tablespoons beetroot powder
• 250 ml olive oil 1 cup
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2-4 Tablespoons kewpie mayonnaise or homemade
• 30 gm pepita seeds toasted

Instructions

 

• Start with the basil oil. Put the oil and the leaves into a blender and puree till smooth. Pour into a container and set aside.

Hummus-

• Put the chickpeas, beetroot powder, garlic, preserved lemon, cumin, tahini, and lemon juice into the processor and blitz till it is chopped. Open the lid and scrape down the sides, then add half of the oil at a time, blitzing till smooth. Taste. Season. Set aside
• Heat a frying pan to hot then add the olive oil and the kale stir around for 1 minute to start to wilt it then add the chopped preserved lemon and toss till warm. Add the water and toss on high, then put on the lid for a couple of minutes to speed the process. The kale will wilt and soften then add the vinegar and stir. Turn off and set aside. This can be used warm or cold, the aim is to wilt it and make it easier to eat. It should still be green .
• To serve the salad. Use individual plates or a platter. Spread the hummus on the bottom. Pour over a bit of the basil oil. Next add the kale and sprinkle with toasted pepita seeds. Break up the smoked fish and lay on top of the kale. Squirt some of the mayonnaise on top to taste.
• Use extra basil oil, seeds and crispy crackling to add texture and taste.

How to make skin crackling:. Put the crackling into a hot frypan (whole) skin side down and leave on one side till it starts to crackle and toast. If it smokes too much turn down a little. Turn the skin over. It will become smaller and start to colour on both sides.

• ***********Warning Use a lid when doing this as the skin will crackle and pop and hot oil from the skin will splatter. Put a teaspoon oil into a frypan or skillet on medium, then add the skins removed from the smoked fish skin side down. Heat till it splutters and starts to become golden and crispy. Drain on paper and cut up. It will crisp up when cool. break up and divide between plates

Notes

Make all of this ahead of time and use when you want. If you refrigerate the basil oil give it time to come back to room temperature as olive oil hardens in the fridge.

My Kitchen Stories was given the new Hot Smoked Ocean Trout and Salmon to compare and try. Opinions are entirely my own and only influenced by personal experience.