Cedar Planked Trout with Orange Ginger Sage Sauce

Trout never struck me as beautiful or uniquely tasty until I discovered Max Creek Hatchery's trout at Union Square's Greenmarket. When I opened the fish tank for the first time at its booth in the market, my eyes glistened and I knew I would buy it and become a return customer. I did.

Some people get scared by whole fish, some are dazzled by roasted whole fish at restaurants. I'd say don't get scared, whole fish is prized over fillets in quite many gourmet cultures. And don't get dazzled, it's awfully easy to roast a delicious whole fish yourself and debone it.

"Freshness" is the key to make anything delicious, but perhaps no food shows the correlation between freshness and taste as strong as in fish. If you can get hold of superfresh whole fresh, with a bunch of fresh herbs, dashes of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, drizzles of olive oil, you'll make yourself a roasted whole fish, equal in taste to those you'd pay $35 at restaurants. (Don't over cook it though.)

We had many delicious roasted whole fish with the Max Creek Hatchery's trout, using the simple recipe mentioned above. But I am greedy and often want to find new ways to cook things. I always had success with cedar planking salmon. Why not trout? I asked myself. So out came this succulent and interestingly delicious cedar planked trout with ginger, sage and orange juice.















Recipe:
1 whole trout, about 10 oz
1 chunk of ginger, peeled
1 dozen sage leaves
dashes of kosher salt
1/3 cup orange juice
1 cedar plank*

Roasting the fish:
1. Soak the cedar plank in cold water in a baking tray**. 2 hours is recommended***. Place a heavy item on the plank so that it fully submerges into the water, or flip side after one hour, so that the wood is evenly soaked.
2. Make 3 slashes on both sides of the fish, try 45 degree slashes. About 2/3 into the meat.
3. Cut 6 slices of ginger. Insert one piece of ginger and one piece of sage leave into each slash.
4. Put a few sage leaves and ginger slices inside the trout stomach.
5. Sprinkle kosher salt all over the fish, outside and inside. A thin and loose layer is fine.
6. Place the fish on top of the cedar plank in the watered tray. Place the whole tray into a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 325F. Do not pre-heat the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a fork can easily insert into the thickest part of fish all the way through.

*I got my cedar plank from Williams-Sonoma. The cedar flavor is light when cooking this way in the oven. If you cooking it on a grill instead, the cedar flavor could come out stronger.

** Soaking adds moisture to the wood and eventually adds moisture to the fish during roasting, making it juicy and succulent.

**Sometimes I forgot to soak the plank beforehand, the fish still turn out quite good. But it's a MUST to soak the plank in water DURING roasting even if you forget to soak in advance.

Sauce:
1. Mince 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tbs sage leaves.
2. Heat orange juice, minced ginger and sage, 1/8 tsp kosher salt together on medium low heat, reduce to low when boiling, simmer for 5 minutes.

Serving:
Dip the fish meat into the sauce.

The skin will look dry and crispy after roasting, making it easy to tear off. Juicy meat underneath.



After you finish the top layer, just lift the bone, it comes off easily. It may sound cruel, the brain inside the head is tasty, reminds me of bone marrow in osso bucco. The skin is edible too.

Beautiful rainbow trout, you can still see the spotty pattern on the skin after roasting.