Fire Pit Fish With Pantry Quinoa Salad
If you've been looking for a sign to learn how to cook fish over coals, this is it. Welcome! I am so glad you are here. In case you didn't know, I am very passionate about cooking over hot coals. We've had our fire pit in our garden for two years now and every autumn, winter and spring (definitely not summer - it's way too hot) we get down there to cook up a storm. We love cooking all types of meat and vegetables, but my favourite is cooking whole fish, particularly rainbow trout. A little while ago I asked if you wanted me to show you how to cook whole fish over coals and the response was a resounding yes. So here we go!
Tips for cooking over hot coals
The first thing you need to do is to make your fire. To find out how to do this, visit this post.
To gauge the temperature of the coals, the general rule of thumb is if you can hold your hand above the coals where the cooking surface will sit for five seconds, the temperature is roughly 100C. For a moderate heat, 3 seconds is around 180C and for a high heat, you should only be able to hold your hand over for 1 second and that's around 200C.
Remember, you want to cook over coals - not flames.
Always place the aluminium wrapped fish over the hottest part on the grill or BBQ grate - not the hot plate if your grill has one.
It's really very simple and once you get comfortable with cooking over coals a few times, it doesn't seem so daunting anymore. If anything, you'll probably want to cook outdoors more - hopefully! There is so much you can do with flames and coals, but this recipe is such a great place to start.
This recipe is for a whole rainbow trout; if you want to cook with a smaller or a larger fish, you will need to adjust the cooking time.
A little note from me
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this recipe. I hope you enjoyed it and feel inspired to cook over coals! If you have any questions about the process of cooking over coals, please get in touch by sending me an email at jaharn@smorkitchen.com. You can also stay in touch with me by following along on Instagram and Pinterest. Happy cooking!
And for those wanting to know, the table cloth featured in these images is from I Love Linen, and it's absolutely gorgeous!
Fire Pit Fish With Pantry Quinoa Salad
Servings
2
Prep Time
60 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Ingredients
Fire Pit Fish
1 whole rainbow trout, gutted
2 teaspoons Native Saltbush (or flaky sea salt)
2 teaspoons milled or crushed Native Tasmanian Pepperberry (or cracked pepper)
1 lemon, sliced
1 cup fresh parsley sprigs
Pantry Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa
4 Vegetable stock cubes
1/2 cup sultanas
1 cup parsley, roughly chopped
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 cup mung beans
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
Flaky sea salt and cracked pepper, to season
Directions
Wash and cook the quinoa as per the packet instructions. Remember to include four vegetable stock cubes! Set aside in a large bowl.
Cook the whole trout over hot coals as per my instructions here.
Add sultanas, parsley, mung beans, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil to the cooked quinoa. Stir to combine. Season with flaky sea salt and cracked pepper. Serve the Pantry Quinoa Salad onto two plates.
Flake the flesh off the rainbow trout and place on top of the Pantry Quinoa Salad. Season with flaky sea salt and cracked pepper.
Enjoy!
