Out of the stream, into the frying pan: Cooking fresh trout

Out of the stream, into the frying pan: Cooking fresh trout

Hooked from cool streams or purchased from the market, fresh trout make excellent summer eating.

In these recipes, you cook the fish in a frying pan for either camp or kitchen preparation. To double the number of servings, simply use two pans with one recipe's worth in each.

Market trout from fresh-water farms are most commonly available dressed (gutted) with head and tail intact. The whole dressed fish is also sold boned. Other forms you are likely to encounter are boned and butterflied trout minus head and tail, and fillets of trout.

One dressed 10- to 11-inch trout--from head to tail--weighs about 8 to 10 ounces and makes an ample single serving. If you're buying fish without a head and tail, purchase one weighing 7 to 9 ounces. Fillets (2 per person) should be 3 to 4 ounces each. Trout

Select trout as you do all fish: the smell should be fresh, eyes clear and firm (not concave), and the body firm, not mushy. If you don't cook the fish immediately, store it in the coldest part of the refrigerator for no longer than a day or two.

Breakfast Trout Fry

1/2 cup firmly packed (3 oz.) chopped bacon

2 medium-size (3/4 to 1 lb. total) thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced

Salad oil, optional

1 small onion, sliced

1/2 teaspoon dry thyme leaves,optional

2 whole 10- to 11-inch dressed trout with head and tail (8 to 10 oz. each), rinsed and patted dry

About 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Salt and pepper

In a 10- to 12-inch frying pan over medium heat, stir bacon occasionally until browned and crisp, about 8 minutes. Lift bacon from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Spoon out 2 tablespoons of the fat and set aside.

Add potatoes to pan and cook until they're brown on bottom, about 10 minutes (add salad oil, if necessary, to keep potatoes from sticking). Add onion and thyme; turn with a wide spatula to mix. Cook, turning Onion occasionally, until potatoes are golden brown and tender when pierced, about 12 minutes. Stir in bacon. Pour mixture onto a platter; keep warm.

Coat fish with flour; shake off excess. Add reserved bacon fat to pan; place over medium heat, and add trout. Cook until browned on bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. With wide spatula, turn trout over and cook until other side is browned and fish is just opaque in thickest part (cut to test), 2 to 3 minutes more. Accompany trout with potato mixture; and salt and pepper to taste. Makes 2 servings.

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