Some of my fondest hill memories relate to fishing. In my callow youth, I once rode up to Manali on my Yezdi, and spent several days there fishing in the Beas River. I would reel in and out a fish from the river, clean and gut it, rub it with salt, pepper and lime juice, and then cook it on wood fire. I don’t think I have tasted a fish tastier than that.

The fish, of course, was the most delicious Himalayan trout. I suppose I love it even more because on many occasions — in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir — the fish came to my table from a river not too far away.

Now, of course, the trout, which the British introduced to India sometime in the middle of the 19th century, is readily available across India. And chefs are cooking it in the most ingenious of ways.

That’s what I discovered some weeks ago while chatting with the new executive chef at The Claridges in New Delhi. “The best part about the trout is that it’s a fresh water fish, low in fat and high on Omega 3 and protein. It is so versatile and simple that it remains a hero even if it is just fried or if it is served as a complex dish with other accompaniments,” chef Sahil Sabhlok says.

I notice that he does both with the fish — occasionally giving it a royal treatment, and sometimes just letting it be. The hazelnut crusted Himalayan trout, for instance, is simply grilled and served with a spiced yoghurt soup and a warm lentil salad. But the shrimp mousse smeared trout fillet with potato scales is pan-seared and served with fennel-scented seafood.
The trout en papillote is quite an elaborate process, too. He bakes the fish after seasoning it in a parchment paper bag in an oven. “When the bag puffs up, it indicates that the fish is cooked,” chef Sahil says. Now transfer it to a plate, but be careful of the hot steam that will escape from the parchment bag, he says.

Many chefs — such as Nishant Choubey of Dusit Devarana, New Delhi — believe that the fish is best cooked whole. Chef Choubey recently cooked a whole fish with vanilla, star anise, coriander and chillies. He wrapped it in butter paper and then poached it. “It tastes the nicest when cooked whole — barbecued or steamed,” he asserts.

Chef Sahil’s trout dishes focus on presentation and side dishes. His vodka-cured Himalayan trout, for instance, comes with home-made pickles, blinis and beluga, served on a pink salt slab.

Flavours such as dill and lemon work well with trout, consultant chef Sabyasachi Gorai holds. “Last year, in Sydney, I rubbed asafoetida and chillies on a trout, grilled it on charcoal and served it with burnt lemon. The guests loved it,” he recalls. “But trout with dill, olive oil and lemon baked in a pouch is my all-time favourite,” he says.

I feel that there is nothing like the mountains behind you to make the Himalayan trout taste special. Once, we bought some fresh trout from a farm in Patlikuhl near Manali and had them grilled. That, says chef Utpal Mondal, who is now with The Lalit Grand Palace in Srinagar, is the best way to eat trout. And the tastiest trout, he holds, is the wild fish that you find in the Lidder River.

Indeed, on a houseboat in Srinagar, a wizened old ustad cooked some delightful trout for us once. After all these years, I still remember the taste. But then that’s not surprising. What could be better than snow-peaked mountains at a distance, a gurgling river somewhere close by, and freshly grilled trout on the table?

Photographs by Jagan Negi;
Courtesy: The Claridges, New Delhi