Kitchen
Trout from the Pemberton streams
The trout on our menu has a short journey from stream to plate. Gareth Clarke explained the route, and why the recipe has hardly changed.
The dish
A short road from the water
The trout comes from a small fish farm in the cold streams near Pemberton, a forty-minute drive from Manjimup. Gareth Clarke collects it himself every Thursday morning in a chilled box, and he has done so since the first month. He says a fish that has travelled for an hour tastes of the stream and not of the road.
The farmer is a quiet woman who has never once been late. She weighs the fish in front of Gareth, wraps it in paper and tells him which ones are best that day. He takes her advice without question.
How the dish is made
The fillet
Each fish is filleted on the morning of service and kept on ice until the pan is hot. The skin is scored lightly and the fillet cooked skin-side down until crisp, which takes about four minutes.
The butter
In winter the butter is flavoured with a little local truffle, and in summer with lemon and parsley. The butter is made in the kitchen on the day, and it is spooned over the fish at the very last moment, so it melts at the table.
The plate
Boiled new potatoes and steamed greens are served beside the fish. Nothing else is needed, Gareth says, and he has been proved right every time a waiter has suggested a sauce.
It is one of the three dishes that has never left the menu. If you try only one thing at the lodge, I would suggest this one, and I would suggest eating it before it cools.
Gareth tells me the farmer once offered him a larger fish and he declined it. A larger fish, he explained, is a different dish, and he would rather cook the right dish badly than the wrong one beautifully. I am not sure that was entirely serious, but the trout has never been anything but excellent.