RECIPE

Though it’s a lot of fun to smoke your own trout, a lot of people don’t have a small smoker hanging around the house and there are excellent quality smoked trout such as Petuna that can be purchased from delis and speciality stores. The flavour of the smoked trout is wonderfully complimented by pepian sauce, a southern Mexican speciality usually made from toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds or a mixture the two. The toasted seeds give a beautiful, nutty flavour to the sauce with just a hint of heat from the chilli pequin. These smoked trout tostadas are quick, easy and the perfect summer party food.

Ingredients

200 grm Petuna hot-smoked ocean trout

Salsa Pepian
• 100 g tomato
• 500 g tomatillo or green tomato
• 100 g white onion
• 60 g hulled pumpkin seed
• 60 g sesame seeds
• 3 whole allspice
• 2 pequin chillies
• salt, to taste

To Assemble
• 20 tostadas or lightly salted tortilla chips
• ½ cup of julienned spring onion
• ½ cup of julienned firm mango
• ½ cup of thinly sliced sweet eshallot
• 6 small red chillies, seeds removed and julienned
• ½ 6 small green chillies, seeds removed and julienned
• ½ cup julienned red radish

Method

  1. To make the pepian, place the tomato, tomatillo and onion in a small pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. At around 5 minutes or as each item softens, remove and place in the blender jug. The tomatillo will usually take 2 mins more than the tomato, the onion slightly longer still.
  2. Warm a 25 cm frypan to a medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds, tossing or stirring frequently until golden and puffed up. Remove to the blender jug.
  3. In the same pan add the sesame seed and toast. When nearly golden, add the allspice and pequin chilli. Add to the blender jar, then add salt and puree for 2 minutes until very smooth. Check seasoning and reserve.
  4. Line up the tostadas on a tray and top each piece with a smear of pepian paste. Place a small portion of smoked trout, then garnish with the julienned vegetables and serve immediately.

Note: This pepian base works wonderfully for out canapé of smoked trout tostadas, but to serve in its more common form as a sauce you can simply add chicken stock and seasoning until the paste has a more sauce like consistency. Serve with chicken, prawns, pork or steamed vegetables.

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