Rotary cooks up new recipes book
Favourite trout recipes dished up for keen anglers
If you’re a keen angler, or have one in the family, sometimes you can be at a bit of a loss to come up with a different way of cooking the trout they bring home. Never fear. Tu¯ rangi is not only the trout fishing capital of the world, but the Tu¯ rangi Rotary Club has come to the rescue with its newly released book Trout Recipes from New Zealand, a collection of 79 of the finest trout recipes its members could source.
From variations on the staples of smoking trout to innovative ways of dishing it up, the book has everything from smoked trout chowder to Thai chilli trout, and a range in between. As well, there’s a variety of tasty starters to make with trout, and sauces to have alongside it.
Club president Joanne Booker and treasurer Olwyn McNickle drove the book, which is a community fundraising project for the club.
They were helped by Peter and Monique Canziani, who sold a lot of the advertising, Joanne’s son Leith Booker, a graphic designer who did the layout, and Leith’s partner Hannah Boyce, who took on the editing and proofreading.
Joanne and Olwyn say everyone has their own favourite recipe for cooking trout but when they are looking to depart from the tried and true, it can be hard to know what to do. That’s where Trout Recipes from New Zealand comes in.
The book was first published in
2007 in black and white and had two print runs of 500 copies each so the rotary club decided it was time for a reprint. But its new 2021 edition is bigger and brighter than before, with more recipes and a wider selection of dishes.
“We had people ringing us asking us for copies and would we update it,” Olwyn says. “It’s been mooted around the club but it always came back to one person — me — so when Joanne came on board, we got it going.”
Most of the recipes from the old book were retained, but anything out of date was discarded and then the pair asked club members, the community, friends and family for their special trout recipes.
About nine delicious recipes, with photographs, also came from chef and outdoorsman Tony Smith of Trout Fisher magazine.
The final result is a 100-page book split into sections covering everything from platters and starters to barbecue favourites and dinner
recipes. Olwyn and Joanne have their own favourites. Olwyn, who for years has run lodges and camping grounds with husband John, has a simple but delicious microwave trout recipe which was her standby for whenever guests presented her with a trout they wanted cooked. Joanne, whose husband David is a keen fisherman, enjoys an adapted salmon recipe but says she also likes trout simply smoked and vacuum-packed.
The club has had 1000 copies of printed and they are available at Hunting and Fishing Taupo¯, Paper Plus Taupo¯, Sporting Life Tu¯rangi , Naylor’s Bookstore Tu¯rangi, Licorice Cafe Motuoapa and the Omori Store for an RRP of $25. Because the advertising in the book covered the cost of production, all proceeds go to Tu¯rangi community projects. In the past these have included new computers for Tongariro School, Animal Care Tu¯ rangi, St John Youth, Tu¯ rangi Blue Light, Tu¯rangi Foodbank and Tu¯rangi Bird Rescue.