Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

“Great for salads. On a cracker. With Cream Cheese. Or Creme Fraiche”

TJ’s smoked rainbow trout will definitely satisfy fans of smoked fish (raises hand).

You will find this in the Refrigerated case near all the kinds of smoked salmon Trader Joe’s sells. These fillets of Smoked Rainbow Trout are delicious. At $8.49 a package (8 oz) yes it might be a bit of a splurge, however the quality is definitely gourmet level, and smoked fish ain’t cheap eats. We find it worth the occasional splurge as it is so good, and I can get stretch one package into two meals.

As with smoked fish a little goes a long way, I found I can usually come up with two meals out of a package. For instance, the first night I used one fillet as an appetizer, served on crackers, and that was very yummy. The next night, I used the other fillet and came up with a Japanese style rice dish for dinner. That in particular was really tasty., and a big hit in our house.

Open up this package and you will find a half side of a rainbow trout, skin on, filleted into two pieces, one thick piece plus the thinner tail half.

This trout has been delicately smoked with four fruit wood chips (Maple, Oak, Apple and Cherry). Which gives this an appealing smoky aroma. As a huge fan of smoked fish over a lifetime, I can tell good stuff and I would call this gourmet level. While not exactly cheap, TJ’s price for this is less. For instance I saw a similar package of trout at Whole Foods going for about $12.

The fish has the typical pellicule (glossy coating) from being smoked which is normal and of course edible. I found the trout to have a nice smoke from the 4 fruit wood chips they use; The smoke is not too heavy, its just right, it doesn’t overpower the trout, it enhances the flavor of the fish. I did find it the tiniest hair on the salty side but this is normal for smoked fish and its counter balanced when you eat the fish with other things which balance out the salinity.

You could prep the fish by taking off the skin, then breaking it up in bite size bits. I broke up the fish with my fingers. You will get smelly fingers but just wash with soap and lemon. If you don’t want to use your fingers you could try doing this with two forks.

Use the pieces any way you wish. One idea TJ’s has is serving this on top of a salad, which is a good idea. A similar variation I came up with is “smoked trout potato salad“. I served the smoked fish with a lemon mayo dressing on top of cold boiled potatoes. The combo was so good. The smoky fish matched perfectly with the potatoes. We really enjoyed this for a summer dinner. Next time I will toss in some capers too, which will make this even better.

PS – I made this in fact a few weeks after I wrote this. We loved it! This potato and smoked fish salad was delicious and so easy.

SMOKED TROUT AND POTATO SALAD

Boil up golden or red potatoes cut into large cubes in salted water till cooked. Drain. I added a cucumber and quarter of a large Sweet onion on top of the potatoes. I put one fillet of the trout on top which I shredded up into bite size chunks (I did it with fingers, or use two forks). Dressing: My dressing was half mayo, half Greek yogurt, lot of lemon juice and dill seasoning. Lot of black pepper.

You can easily make a smoked trout salad the same way, mix your fish up with some mayo, sour cream, or greek yogurt, lemon juice, maybe a little chopped celery or scallions…. Try that on top of a toasted bagel.

I thought this smoked trout would match perfectly with CREME FRAICHE as they suggest, and it did especially with a drizzle of lemon juice. You could use sour cream or even plain Greek yogurt instead, maybe with a little dill or dill pickle season blend. Or mayonnaise with lemon juice….

The trout would be great on a bagel with cream cheese too of course like smoked salmon.

The first night I did an appetizer with the trout. We spread creme fraiche on crackers and topped it with shredded up smoked trout. For the next night, I had saved one fillet for another dish. I came up with an idea to use the smoked fish for a Japanese rice dish with the trout. The finished dish turned out great. I used my traditional clay pot (donabe) as I love cooking with it. A rice cooker would work just as well, or even a heavy pot on the stove-top. Not liking to waste anything I even used the skin to make an easy fish stock (dashi) before hand to cook the rice in and add that flavor. The cooked skin went to the cats later as nothing should be wasted as per the Japanese philosophy of waste “Mottainai” (Mottainai: A Japanese Philosophy of Waste ).

All I can say is my wife, who is Japanese, loved my rice dish and deemed it delicious, which is saying something as she is not easy to please! A recipe follows below.

JAPANESE STYLE RICE WITH SMOKED TROUT – you can make this in a clay pot, rice cooker, or just any heavy pot on the stove. (DASHI/BROTH) Remove skin from the fish and put it in a pot with 2 cups water with 1/2 inch thinly sliced ginger. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes (you can add carrots or other vegetables for additional flavor and put them in the rice later) Or you can use Dashi powder (Hondashi) for a fish stock.

Wash 1.5 cups of rice (short grain rice preferred but Jasmine rice will work in a pinch) Place drained rice in your pot and cover rice with broth by a 1/2 inch. Place the Smoked Trout fillet on top of rice. Add fresh ginger slivered or grated. Cover and cook the rice as you usually would, being sure to not overcook it (as a rule I would say cook 16 minutes, then turn off and don’t open lid. When the rice is finished cooking just let it sit 10 minutes with the cover on and don’t peek. When ready use a wooden spoon or spatula and gently break up the fish into the rice if it still has large pieces. Gently mix it all up adding a drizzle of soy sauce. Add 2 chopped scallions. Option: add edamame or peas or other cooked vegetables too if you like.

Serve with FURIKAKE sprinkled on top.

I would buy this again. This smoked trout is gourmet quality. Worth the occasional splurge of $8.49 a package I can get two meals out of a package.

By the way, once you learn how to make rice in it you will find that these traditional clay pots make the best and tastiest rice, especially if you love “o-koge” the slightly browned up crunchy rice from the bottom of the pot, which is popular in so many food cultures (Japan, China, Spain, Iran….) I adore that crunchy brown part.