I was recently blessed to be given a whole, beautiful and rather large trout that was freshly caught on the west coast of Tasmania. I was stoked about it. I knew I’d get several meals from it. I wanted to roast it for a crisp skin and then had plans for the leftovers. This was one of those plans and it worked out beautifully. It is a mildly flavoured paste that would be wonderful on crackers, used as a pate or served as a sandwich filling. I have been thoroughly enjoying it served on toast. Although mine was, your trout needn’t be wild, but the fennel must. I’ve loved picking and eating the wild fennel I find on the roadside here in Tasmania. It has a very different flavour to the variety cultivated for its bulb. If you really wanted to make this paste, but didn’t have the fennel, I’d suggest using chives instead.
Makes about 2 cups
| 75 | grams | butter |
| 6 | shallots | |
| 2 | cloves | garlic |
| 2 | cups | cooked and flaked trout |
| ½ | cup | sour cream |
| 2 | tablespoons | chopped wild fennel leaves |
| ¼ | teaspoon | sea salt |
| ¼ | teaspoon | white pepper |
| 1 | tablespoon | lemon juice |
Peel the garlic and shallots. Place them in a small saucepan with the butter and cook on the gentlest heat possible for at least 30 minutes. You want them to be soft, sweet and fragrant.
Place the cooked shallots and garlic in a food processor with the trout, sour cream, salt and pepper and blitz.
Pour in the melted butter in which you cooked the shallots, as well as the lemon juice and chopped fennel. Blitz to a fine paste.
Transfer to a plastic container for storage or suitable serving pots and refrigerate.
If you’re serving it as a dip, remove it from the fridge at least 30 minutes beforehand to allow it to soften enough for scooping.
