Get fired up! Turn on that barbecue and get grilling: Barbecue Lean Pork, Gale’s Barbecue Trout and Auntie Shirley Potatoes Homemade
By: Eva Wasney Posted: 4:42 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 27, 2025

It’s a subtle shift. As warm weather settles in for good, the sweet, smoky smell of outdoor cooking becomes an evening staple of neighbourhoods across the city.

Make the most of grilling season with reader recipes for Barbecue Lean Pork from Anita Lee, Gale’s Barbecue Trout from Gale Petreny and Auntie Shirley Potatoes from Patti Mersereau-LeBlanc.

Want to share a recipe? Visit winnipegfreepress.com/homemade to fill out the submission form.

Barbecue Lean Pork

Ingredients

• 15 ml (1 tbsp) oyster sauce
• 5 ml (1 tsp) sesame oil
• 45 ml (3 tbsp) honey
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) light soya sauce
• 45 ml (3 tbsp) ketchup
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) cooking wine
• 2 ml (½ tsp) white pepper
• 5 ml (1 tsp) salt
• 500 g (1 lb) small pork tenderloin or lean pork, cut lengthwise into 2-inch strips if necessary

Directions

1. In a shallow container, make a marinade by mixing together all ingredients except pork. Add pork and marinate in the refrigerator for an hour.
2. Preheat the oven or barbecue to 400 F. If using oven, place pork in an oven-safe dish and bake for 20 minutes. Turn pork and bake for another 20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches between 145 F and 160 F.
3. Remove from the oven and brush lightly with vegetable oil. Slice thinly crosswise and serve.

Note: The pork can be basted with the remaining marinade half-way through cooking. If cooking on the barbecue, place the meat on the grill over medium heat and keep a close eye to ensure the sugary marinade doesn’t burn.

— Anita Lee

Gale’s Barbecue Trout

Ingredients

• 7.5 ml (1-½ tsp) coarse salt
• 1.25 ml (½ tsp) pepper
• 1.25 ml (¼ tsp) oregano
• 60 ml (¼ cup) butter or margarine, melted
• 60 ml (¼ cup) lemon juice
• 5 ml (1 tsp) Worcestershire sauce
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) onion, finely minced
• 4 lake trout fillets or salmon fillets with skin

Directions

1. Rub coarse salt, pepper and oregano on the flesh side of the fillet.
2. Add remaining ingredients to the melted butter or margarine.
3. Spray cold grill with non-stick cooking spray or brush with oil to prevent fish from sticking. Alternatively, you can place the fish on a sheet of aluminum foil on the grill. Heat barbecue to medium.
4. Place fillets on the grill or foil skin side down.
5. Cook for 2 minutes. Spoon half the onion-butter mixture onto the fillets. Cook the fish for another 5 minutes and then spoon on the remaining butter mixture. Continue to cook until the fish is flaky.

“Many years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Cranberry Portage to officiate at a local wrestling tournament. While I was up there, I was invited to go ice fishing. We caught a number of lake trout and my host taught me how to cook up our catch. Maybe it was the fresh-caught trout or the pride in catching the fish, but this was the best fish I had ever tasted. This is the only recipe I use now to barbecue fish and is a gold standard in our family. Even the kids that don’t like fish love this recipe!”

— Gale Petreny

Auntie Shirley Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 potato per person
• 30 ml (1 tbsp) butter per potato
• 1 package dry onion soup mix

Directions

1. Thinly slice potatoes and place on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Top potatoes with butter and onion soup mix.
2. Fold the foil into a packet and seal the edges best you can. Wrap in several more layers of foil.
3. Heat barbecue to medium and place foil packets on the grill. Cook, flipping frequently, for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

“When I was a child my family would go out on my Auntie Shirley and Uncle Dalton’s house boat on the weekends. There was camping, fishing, and swimming all weekend. Endless fun! And of course my aunt would make these potatoes. I loved them. Throughout the winter I would ask my mom to make them but didn’t know what to call them, so they became Auntie Shirley Potatoes.”

— Patti Mersereau-LeBlanc

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.