Slap Ya Mama! Cajun Battered Trout!

Trout. You either hate the taste or love it. I have prepared trout and cooked it the exact same for years and years. Sometimes it turned out great other times it was a total fail. I decided that the taste of the fish was completely due to the source of river or lake I caught it from. I still believe that is true to a certain extent but I'm going to tell you how to make a great tasting trout every time you cook one up regardless of where it's caught.

A friend of mine that I recently started fishing with makes the best homemade battered french fries. After a short fishing trip to the mountains we harvested a few brook trout and rainbow trout. We decided to cook up some fish and fries the following night and decided to season the trout with the same seasonings that my buddy uses for his fry batter. The results were insanely good! There were also a few different things that I decided to try out while preparing the fish which made a world of difference.

Cleaning the Fish

Make sure that you do a thorough job when cleaning the fish. I make sure that I get every last little bit of yuck from the trout membrane and sometimes I'll remove the head and tail. The next thing I like to do is run a knife along the skin and remove as many scales as possible. Dirt and other nasty stuff can get caught in the scales, so scaling the fish can definitely improve the taste. Especially if you enjoy eating the skin.

A Trout in the Milk

This has absolutely nothing to do with the saying and everything to do with the final taste. I don't love a strong fishy taste or really any fishy taste at all. Weird I know, usually people eat fish for the fish taste. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I love sushi and fishy tasting sushi usually means that it's not fresh! Anyways, soak your cleaned fish in milk for 20 minutes to a few hours in the fridge or cooler. This will make the fish a little more mild and takes away the fishy taste. It also reduces fishy smell for odorless cooking.

Rinse

After soaking in milk, spend a little bit of time rinsing the fish under cold clean water. I also like to do one more round of scaling at this point and cleaning the skin.

A Quick Brine

This step is optional. I like to soak the trout in cold water and a few tablespoons of seasoned salt. Usually about 10-30 minutes is just fine. After soaking, rinse the fish again with clean cold water.

Slap Ya Mama Batter

I have no idea the exact measurements of each seasoning. Use your best judgement and maybe experiment a little bit to taste for your own liking.

-Flour - This should make up 1/2 to 2/3 of the batter

-Slap Ya Mama - I bought this delicious cajun seasoning from Amazon. It comes in both mild and hot. I like to use 2/3 mild and 1/3 hot.

-Garlic Powder - Don't overdue it!

-Onion Powder - Ditto

-Paprika - Just a pinch or two

-Salt & Pepper - Just a pinch

I usually mix all of these seasonings into a 1 gallon plastic bag, put the trout in one at a time and shake it up. Once I have the trout on tin foil or the pan, I'll top it off with a pinch of slap ya mama. You can add a little bit of water to make this a true batter but usually the fish are damp after rinsing and I prefer a thin layer of batter.

Garnish

This step is optional. Throw a small slice of butter and a slice of lemon inside the fish. Top it off with fresh parsley.

At this point, go ahead and cook the fish your preferred way. I prefer to cook trout on a small wood fed grill of mine to give it a little bit of a smokey flavor. I haven't tried this batter in the oven or pan fried but I'm sure it will taste great. I don't take all of the credit for this tasty batter, this was definitely a team effort with my friend. He knows who he is and all I can say is thank you for bringing Slap Ya Mama into my life!

I really enjoy preparing and battering my fish this way. Before this batter I never craved trout, but now that I do I find myself harvesting fish nearly ever time I get out fishing. Let me know how this turns out for you if you give it a try. If you have any ideas for improving this batter I would love to hear it. Thanks for checking out the Creekside blog today!

-Mike