You know, as much as I love trout, it is possible that my very favorite way to enjoy trout is hot smoked trout.

And today I'm gonna show you an amazing recipe that starts with a potato leak soup, and then the star of that soup is a hot smoked trout and bacon butter.

What I have here is a couple of sticks of butter that has been softened to room temperature.

We're adding things to the butter to give it color and crunch and good looks and tremendous flavor.

Those were some scallions.

And then I have a little bit of chopped fresh dill and a big spoonful of my good friend, whole grain mustard, which is gonna add flavor, it's gonna give texture to this butter, and it's gonna give that pop of those mustard seeds.

So I just take a fork and start working these things together.

You really wanna get in there and make sure that everything is fully incorporated.

Now that this is nicely mixed, I'm gonna add the first of two key ingredients for this.

The first is some beautiful bacon.

Listen to that crunch.

It is so delicious.

And then our hero of the day, this is smoked trout.

Now there's skin on this.

No problem.

I love this.

It's as easy as peeling a banana.

And this is now boneless.

So all I'm gonna do is I'm going to make big crumbles, big pieces of this trout in there.

So just a couple more coarse crumbles.

And then I am going to gently fold this in because I like these big pieces of bacon and these big pieces of trout, so that when we use them in our recipe, there is no doubt that this is a trout recipe.

Now that our butter is combined, I'm gonna put it in an attractive bowl that is pretty enough to take to the serving table.

Now this is going to have to refrigerate and get chilled.

So let me get this all in here.

Take my fingers, and now I'm gonna put this in the fridge because it needs to be fully chilled before it goes into that amazing potato and leak soup.

And I'm going to show you how I started that recipe, next.

- [Narrator] Warm the butter in a large pot over moderate heat.

Then stirring the chopped leaks in a couple big pinches of salt, which helps the leaks release their moisture and soften.

Cook the leaks until tender, which takes about eight minutes, stirring occasionally.

They shouldn't brown, so lower the heat if necessary.

Next, add the potatoes, more salt and the stock.

That might sound like a lot of salt, but this is a big pot of potatoes, and I want them to absorb the salt while they cook.

I've learned that it's hard to catch up on that seasoning if I wait until the end.

I'm using homemade chicken stock because the more flavorful the stock, the better the soup.

If you don't have a stash of homemade stock, use store bought chicken bone broth.

Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat, partially cover the pot and let it simmer until the potatoes are very tender and just beginning to fall apart, about 25 minutes.

- You know, this is such a simple soup.

It comes together so quickly, but it has great flavor.

But I'm not done yet with finishing and adding a few more spices.

The first thing I'm gonna do is put in a little bit of dry mustard, and then I'm going to add a little bit of ground nutmeg.

And last but not least, a little bit of cayenne.

Now, I want this soup to be a puree, so I am going to use an immersion blender.

You know, as I'm doing this, I can tell this is a little bit thick.

I'm not making mashed potatoes, I'm making a great soup.

So I'm gonna thin this down with a little bit of milk.

You could also use some heavy cream or even some good tart buttermilk.

You know, I think I've got this.

It's pretty much smooth, but there's a couple of little chunks of potatoes, and I like that texture.

So make it as chunky or as smooth as you like it.

Now the last thing I need to do is, is I need to taste this to make sure that there's enough salt.

And there probably is, remember how we added that salt early on with the leaks and the potatoes so that they could cook and absorb that?

Well, I think we're here, but gotta taste it to make sure.

That's really spot on.

You can tell it's well seasoned, but not over the top.

And then I'm gonna put in quite a bit of black pepper.

That is gorgeous.

So now, all we lack is our smoked trout and bacon butter.

Oh yeah, look at this.

It's got color, it's got that great shape and texture.

You could almost taste it before you do taste it, but that's what comes next.

This is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to ladle up some of this amazing soup, and when I get a good, I don't know, maybe one more ladle.

I am going to top this with a big spoonful of our gorgeous trout, bacon butter.

Put it right in there.

It's so good.

But here's what I do.

I take little bits of this and I start pressing the soup over it and bringing it down so that the trout and the bacon and all of that good stuff starts combining with the potato soup.

Let me dig in.

Oh friends, oh friends, I wish you could have some of this with me.

Let me tell you about this.

The star of all of this is that hot smoked trout.

Then you get that bit of smokey bacon, you get the crunch of the scallions, you get all of those herbs.

This is a whole dinner party in one soup bowl.

This is amazing, and I just know you're gonna love it.