Trucha a la Navarra
The rivers of Navarra in Northern Spain are a great breeding ground for mountain trout. It was here in the 1920s that Ernest Hemingway took up trout fishing in the Río Irati and described it in his book ‘The Sun Also Rises’. Whilst the origins of this simple trout recipe may lie in the mountain villages of Navarra, it is a popular dish all over the country.
There are countless versions of Trucha a la Navarra which in its simplest form consists of fried whole trout stuffed with slices of jamón serrano. This version is as simple as it gets and shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to prepare. The result is a really tasty dish from what is possibly Spain’s most versatile fish in terms of the number of different recipes it appears in.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 2 whole trout
- salt
- three slices of jamón serrano per fish
- enough flour to coat the fish
- olive oil
- three cloves of crushed garlic
- slices of lemon
Cooking Method
Begin by washing the whole trout thoroughly (after gutting) and dry them with kitchen paper. Now salt the fish inside and out, then place two slices of jamón serrano inside each of the fish.
Take an empty baking tray or large plate and layer the bottom of it with flour. Now coat each whole trout on both sides with the flour and set aside.
In a large frying pan heat approximately 1cm of olive oil on a medium heat and add three crushed cloves of garlic. Now add the fish to the pan and lightly fry both sides of each whole trout for approximately 5 minutes depending on its size.
For the sake of presentation you can remove the jamón serrano from the fish before serving and wrap it around the fish with a slice of lemon.
