Trail Chef: Bake Fish ... On a Rock!

Fresh fish, but no pan? We show you how to prepare a tasty fillet on the campfire.

There's something incredibly satisfying, in a primal, caveman way, about catching and cooking your own dinner. That's partly why fishing is so much fun—we've evolved to the point where we feel a little squeamish about roasting a marmot on a stick, but a delicious trout is still socially acceptable. Fish is great in the pan, of course, but that's not the only way to prepare camp seafood. Build a campfire, find a nice, flat rock, and get ready to bake—then check out one of our favorite trout recipes, after the jump.

Trout with Mustard Sauce
By Kelly Bastone. Serves 3.

1 package McCormick Hollandaise sauce mix
1/4 cup butter or 4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup water
4 trout fillets

Heat oil in a pan until sizzling. Cook fish until flaky*. To make sauce, fork-whisk water, butter/olive oil, and contents of sauce packet. Add mustard and tarragon and bring to a boil. Pour over trout.

*Yes, you'll need a pan or pot to make the sauce. Yes, you could just cook the fish in that pan. But it's still fun to bake on a hot rock. And if you want to skip the pan altogether, you can always mix and serve the sauce cold.

—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan

PRINT THIS PAGE EMAIL THIS PAGE RSS FEED

Digg Delicious Yahoo Facebook Reddit StumbleUpon Google Newsvine Facebook Twitter

READERS COMMENTS

It is not just shale and slate that can explode in the fire. Lots of other rocks can blow up if they have previously been in water; along a creek, lakeshore; where ever! The possibility exists your little rock "skillet" will turn into a stick of dynamite. What a stupid thing to suggest!
Posted: Jun 26, 2009 kfr326

Fish is one of the most versatile wild foods. Cooking methods are endless: They can be gutted and popped right onto the coals, steamed between two layers of moss, baked in a pit oven (or on a rock as shown here), filets can be roasted over the fire inside a split stick or cut into pieces and stewed.

I have a suggestion or two about this video though. Heat up the rock first. Also, using a whole fish that's been gutted means that you won't have to worry about grit or ash getting on the meat, nor losing juices and extra flavour to the campfire. The comment before me covers some other very important points.

Good intro video to people who aren't familiar with more primitive cooking methods!
Posted: Jun 25, 2009 Benjamin

An, Oudoor Cooking 101, item left out is you should make sure you are NOT using a flat rock of shale or slate as the moisture between the layers of rock could cause the rock to explode.
Posted: Jun 25, 2009 4bears

All fine and good. But you left out an important part. In the backcountry you need to burn off the oils (fish and otherwise) from the rock so you don't attact critters. Flip the rock over to cook off the oils.
Posted: Jun 25, 2009 Carl