It is about 130 miles from the Kuma Factory to some great steelhead fishing on the Clearwater river.  Mark, the owner of the company (I call him Dad), and I headed out with the family to catch the big ones last Friday.  Most of the fish we caught were released because they were wild but we brought home a few hatchery keepers and here is my experience grilling them up last night.

Steelhead brined and patted dry

I brined 6 fillets in 1 quart of water mixed with an 1/8th cup of salt and a 1/4 cup of sugar. There were in the brine for about 2 hours, just enough time to help with the flavor and moisture.

Removing pin bones from steel head trout

These were filleted right along the backbone to remove the rib bones but they still have those annoying pin bones in the meat.  If you run a finger along the meat you can find and pull them with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Hot Smoking The Kuma Grill

When I felt that we were about 15 minutes from putting the fish on, I started my Kuma grill and set the temperature to 300°.

A mustard base on steel head fillets

We applied a mixture of yellow mustard and minced tarragon to the fillets to act as a glue for the herb/crumb mixture.

Crusting the Fillets

Following the advice of America's Test Kitchen, I toasted a 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs in 2 tablespoons of butter and mixed in some minced thyme and a pinch of salt.  The crumbs were then evenly divided and added to the fillets to form a crust topping.  

Steelhead on the Kuma grill

The fish was barbecued at 300° for about 20 minutes to an internal temperature of 140°. If I had it to do over again I would have smoked the trout right on the grilling grids.  The foil was sprayed with oil and was not a problem but I felt that we would have more smoke flavor without it.

Herb Crusted Steelhead Trout

There it is, we enjoyed it with some fresh green beans and a quinoa pilaf.

Kuma Family Catching Steelhead

The fish tasted great and it was fun working on this recipe but none of that compared to thrill of fighting a 6lb trout in fast moving water.

Here is the ingredients list for this recipe:

6 - 4 oz. fillets of trout or salmon

3 - Tbsp of yellow mustard

1 - Tsp of fresh thyme

1 - Tbst of fresh minced tarragon

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

2 Tbsp of butter

Salt and Sugar for the Brine