One of the things I wanted to master while in Japan is skewering trout. The first time I encountered skewered trout, shiyoyaki style, was on my first trip to Japan. These were being sold in a cart in a touristy area. Just sea-salt on their skin. It was the tastiest trout I have ever had, and I have fallen in love with skewered shiyoyaki trout. It's the only way I cook trout when I camp. But, while I have gotten decent at skewering them, I was sure I could learn a couple of tricks. So, last week, when we had to clean about 10 trout for lunch I took the opportunity to learn it. I also wanted to learn how to clean trout without cutting it open. My friend Masaki had talked about it before. So, I learned that as well.

Here are a couple of videos.
To clean the trout, just remove the gills, then, slowly insert a stick through the gills into the trout, turning it as you go. The objective is to wrap the guts around the stick. Then, lever the stick with the point on the stick pushing toward the back of the trout to pull it. Clean the blood line with the stick.


For skewering the trout, keep in mind that fish around 10" are best (so-called shioyaki size here in Japan). You penetrate the flesh of the trout on opposing sides as you go along. Get the skewer to touch the inside part of the fish skin, but don't penetrate it for best looks and to keep the skewer from burning. Exit near the tail. Spin the skewer as you puncture the flesh.


Coat the skin of the trout with sea-salt. Put more on the tail and fins to keep it from burning:


GOES GREAT WITH BEER!

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Cool I'm gonna try this on my next trout. Thanks Daniel it's like a Japanese corn dog. Only good for ya. Any other Trout recipies from Japan? I'd love to try some for their food while in Japan. Enjoy and thanks Daniel.
Jeremy

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I did mean to try a method of cooking trout with miso, but admit that I never got around to it myself, salt crusted trout is almost magical - the salt changes the texture of the flesh and skin perfectly.

The Akita Mountain Fishing Club has some great ideas, found here:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~jf3t-sgwr/

Be forwarned, I always get hungry when I visit their site...

I'm gonna have to try cleaning fish this way. It reminds me of the way I was taught to clean lamprey, with a stick or hanger, pulling everything through the mouth. It works, but is awful slow at my inexperienced stage.