Catching a trout on the Tongariro as a young chef and finding the wild blackberries and mint on the riverbank encouraged me to enter a Taupō trout-cooking competition. This simple recipe, using foraged ingredients, won, and still represents one of my earliest pleasures.

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 × 150g trout fillets

½ cup flour, seasoned with salt

and white pepper

2 teaspoons olive oil

30g butter

1 cup fresh spearmint, finely sliced

juice of 1 lemon

4 tablespoons blackberry and mint relish

If you have smaller trout, cook them whole.

Method

Pass the trout fillets through the seasoned flour, and pan-fry them in the olive oil and half the butter. The total cooking time will be around 5 minutes. Avoid overcooking.

Remove the fillets from the pan, keep warm, add the remaining butter to the pan and heat until it foams a little. Toss in half the mint and add the lemon juice. Spoon this over the trout and sprinkle over the remaining mint. Serve with a small spoon of blackberry and mint relish.

A side dish of potatoes sautéed in butter would be a good match for this dish.

From the book A River Rules my Kitchen, by Tony Smith

Food styling by Deborah Aspray