Fire-Roasted Trout with Lemon and Herbs

About a month ago I headed to a little town on the Oregon coast somewhere between Nehalem and Rockaway beach for a daytrip with Tiffany from Oh Honey Bakes and Christian. We went with the intention of staying overnight and doing some camping, but with the craziness of work as of late (if you read my last post y’all know what I’m talking about) we decided to cut it short and just do a ladies’ day trip with some fancy feasting and campfire cooking. After working with Tournant for our Secret Suppers and binge-watching all of Chef’s Table, I got suuuuuper into woodfire and fire roasted cooking and have been doing some fun recipe experiments with the fire pit in our backyard, so it was really great to be able to put these new skills to use with friends in such a beautiful setting.

For the fire-roasted trout, we stuffed trout with herbs, olive oil, salt, and lemon, then wrapped them with fig leaves from my garden and tied them onto a piece of driftwood we found on the beach and roasted it over the fire. I also roasted some stone fruits over the flames, as well, by tying them to the driftwood with a bit of damp cooking twine (this helps keep the twine from catching fire), which made for a drool-worthy pairing with the Thyme Butter Lemon Cake that Tiffany made. Christiann whipped us up some realllllly refreshing citrus, gin, and rosemary cocktails – they were perfect for the surprisingly pleasant beach weather (usually the Oregon coast is a very wet place) and I loved that they were simple enough to mix together on-site around a campfire.

We used a ton of beautiful pieces from CB2 for our beach extravaganza, (awesome plates, baskets, glasses, and more. My favorite was their overlook throw which made for a great picnic blanket that we used to warm up once we finished eating and the sun went down), so a huge thanks to them! You can take a look at Tiffany’s post with the recipe for her Thyme Butter Lemon Cake here and Christiann’s post here for some more fun pictures 😀  I have my recipes a bit further down in the post, hope they inspire you to squeeze in one more camping or fishing trip this summer!

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Fire-Roasted Trout with Lemon and Herbs

Servings 2 people

Author Eva Kosmas Flores

Ingredients

• 1 whole trout (cleaned)
• 1 lemon
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 sprigs fresh sage
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon flake sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 large fig or grape leaves optional
• cooking twine soaked in water

Instructions

1. Get a wood or coal fire going and allow it to burn down until the logs/coals are glowing red, white and ashy around the edges, and have a nice low flame. Rub the interior and exterior of the trout with the olive oil, then rub the interior with the salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in half and cut one of the halves into 1/4-inch thick slices.

2. Arrange the lemon slices and herb sprigs inside of the trout, it’s alright if they’re sticking out a little. Wrap the outside of the trout in the fig or grape leaves over the stuffing opening. Tie the trout to a stick to hold over the fire, adjusting the distance as necessary to ensure that the fish is cooking but not burning (a little char is ok, but you don't want it to catch on fire).

3. Roast until the fish is completely cooked through and flakes easily with a fork. Remove from the stick, cut the fish open, and squeeze the remaining lemon half over it. Serve immediately.