Camp food returns: Grilled Trout with Potatoes and Peppers

Once in a while I like to share some great camp food ideas. In my opinion, a great camping trip relies on 3 things: Good weather, good food and good company. And its nice to know that at least one of those things is “in the bag”.

This particular dish is inspired by my Grandma W. (are you realizing that I have LOTS of grandparents by now?) She was by far the most feisty Grandma I’ve had. I share a few things in common with Grandma W.

Here’s a photo of her one Christmas with my brother Nate (nice haircut!)

First is a shared hatred for egg yolks. When she would order fried eggs without yolks at a restaurant, often times the waitress would be confused and just say they couldn’t do that. She would ask if she could walk back to the kitchen to crack the egg herself! They would kindly explain why that was not allowed and assure her they would try to accommodate her request. As the waitress was walking away she would make some under the breathe comment about how anyone with half a brain can separate a yolk from the white.

I used to think this was absurd behavior until I began ordering my own food and realized how many people think this is an unreasonable request! When I order a fried egg with no yolks, I usually NEVER get what I want. Except at Ziggies on Kearney St. They understand this concept. THANK YOU ZIGGIES!

The second thing I share with my grandma (and my dad for that matter) is a love for onions. My grandma would actually eat whole stalks of green onions as a side dish.

Okay, I know this post is supposed to be about camp food, so the third thing we share is a love for fish.

My earliest memories of eating fish was with my grandma at Lake Taneycomo. We would fish for trout all night and have trout for breakfast at the campsite. She would grill it with salt, pepper, butter and lemon juice.

So when I got my hands on some trout (from Judy at work who was looking for an appreciative soul who would enjoy a few whole trout) I knew exactly what to do with it!

Just clean the fish, and remove scales from the body with a heavy duty brush. You don’t even have to cut off its head unless it bothers you.

Paired with my favorite fried potatoes, onions, and peppers this made a nice “I want summer!” meal. This would also be extremely easy to make camping. Just throw a grill stand over the fire, heat up a cast iron skillet, and lay the fish directly on the grill. I just kept basting with lemon juice and butter. Fire grilling the fish gives the skin a nice crispy texture that is fabulous!

And a shoutout to the Bilyeu family! If you have leftover butter, get it nice and hot in the cast iron pan, remove the fish tails and fry them in the butter like potato chips. Remove and lay on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. They are surprisingly good!

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