Nicole and I took the kids fishing today with the intention of catching some red cod or some Tassie flathead, which I was intending on smoking and doing something with, but to our surprise Nic ended up catching 1lb trout!

This creek meets the beach with very deep channels and a trout was not what we were targeting, but we’ll take it just the same! The fish was caught in the creek mouth, which is pretty much the sea, so unlucky trout I say, it smoked up beautifully!

1 x 450g sea trout cleaned and filleted with skin on

Handful of paperbark for smoking

Brown sugar and salt

250g cream cheese

100ml pouring cream

A few sprigs of dill chopped

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Freshly milled black pepper and salt to taste

Turkish bread to toast

Once the trout is filleted, remove as many bones as possible leaving the skin on.

To smoke, I place some paperbark (which is available at selected spice shops or online) in a baking tray, then place a wire rack on the top of the tray, and place the trout fillets on top. Sprinkle the fillets with a little brown sugar and salt, cover with foil, place over a low heat on the stove and hot smoke for about 10 minutes, depending on the size of your fish.

When smoking fish, most people brine the fillets; this is a cheat’s way that also gets this caramelised effect on the fillets, which adds fantastic sweet flavour!

Place the cream cheese, cream, chopped dill and juice and zest of the lemon and pulse in the food processor until smooth. Flake the trout fillets in and pulse again being careful not to blitz too much, check the seasoning and you’re done!

Slice some Turkish bread, toast and serve.