Grilled Ocean Trout Teriyaki

I found a bottle of soy sauce alike in the Coles shopping isle. It was $1.65 for a 150 ml bottle. It is called Japanese Ponzu Sauce. I never heard of it and have no clue what it is for. I read the label and it is said: “Ingredients: Citron juice, sugar, water, natural brewed soy sauce (soy bean, water, salt, wheat flour), rice vinegar, rice white wine, corn starch, spices.” I thought I could probably use that for teriyaki sauce.

I never cook with Trout before. I am not really a fish person, not that I don’t like them, in fact I loves them. It is much proper for me to say that I am not really a fish cook. I don’t really familiar with how to cook fish coming from the sea as I grew up in the place with riverbank. Usually me and my grandpa had this fishing trip with his boat  on the weekend. My grandmother prepared our lunch early in the morning and she would just waited for us in the car while we were fishing. Then, we  had lunch on the riverside with our feet tapping under water. I wish I could turn back the time and go back there. Thank God, Indonesia doesn’t have as much crocodiles as Australia does.

The way we cook our fish was mostly in curry sauce (which need some tropical ingredients that is not available here), asam pedas (meaning sour and spicy, but different to tom yum), fried with or without chili, grilled with soy sauce or with thick coconut sauce. I think Asian cooking is really rich in their sauce and ingredients that sometimes we forgot the simplicity of cooking and the originality of the fresh taste itself. I can only recall the taste of the sauce rather than the fish itself. And this is where I am lacking much, I couldn’t cook something simple with few ingredients. The simple the food, the harder I find myself to cook with them. Or it is probably just in my head.

Well back to the topic, this ocean trout has a very similar texture and taste with salmon. I couldn’t really tell them apart. The distinction between them is that I found salmon has much creamiest taste compare to the trout.

Ingredients

• good cut of trout fillet
• salt and pepper to season
• lemon to season
• oil to coat
• Japanese Ponzu Sauce to serve
• Kecap Manis (Sweet soy sauce) to serve
• Salad to serve

Instructions

1. Seasoned fish with salt, pepper and lemon on both sides.
2. Coat the surface with enough oil.
3. Heat grill pan. Cook the fish skin side down for about 5 minutes. Then flip over to the other sides for another 5 minutes. (You can do it with less amount of time, but I like mine well done)
4. To achieve a much crunchier skin, I popped them in the oven for another few minutes.
5. Mix Japanese Ponzu Sauce and Kecap Manis. I used Kecap Manis to thicken the sauce a little bit.
6. Serve with salad on the side.

Culinary tradition: Japanese

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!