Beer-Battered Cod with Soy-Vinegar Dip
Camp fry-up: cod in beer batter, dipped in soy, rice vinegar, and dried tuna flakes.
- calories
- 710
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 65
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 120 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Dairy free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Cod fillets | 12 oz | frozen solid at home, thawed in the cooler by dinner |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | half goes in the batter, half is the dry coat |
| Light beer | 3/4 cup | cold, straight from the cooler |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Canola oil | 2 cups | for frying, carried in a sealed bottle |
| Soy sauce | 3 tbsp | |
| Rice vinegar | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried tuna flakes | 2 tbsp | packet-sized, weighs nothing |
| Water | 120 ml | for the dip |
Method
- Boil 120 ml of water in a small pot. Kill the heat, drop in the tuna flakes, and let them sit five minutes. Strain them out, stir in the soy sauce and rice vinegar, set the dip aside.
- Cut the cod into strips the width of two fingers. Pat them dry with a bandana or paper towel.
- Whisk half the flour, the salt, and the cold beer into a batter about as thick as pancake batter. Do not overwork it.
- Put the rest of the flour in a bag. Toss the cod strips in it, then shake off the excess.
- Heat the oil in a deep pot to about 350F. A drop of batter should sizzle and rise within a couple seconds.
- Dip each strip in the batter, let the drips fall off, and lower it into the oil away from you. Fry three or four at a time, two to three minutes a side, until the crust is set and pale gold.
- Pull them onto a plate. Let the oil come back up to heat between batches or the next round comes out greasy.
- Eat straight from the pot with the dip alongside.
This came off a food-truck challenge dish and it survives the move to a campsite better than most fried food, because everything in it except the fish is shelf-stable. The cod is the only cooler item, and frozen fillets buy you the whole drive in.
Cold beer in the batter is not a gimmick. The carbonation and the low temperature both slow gluten from developing, so the crust stays thin and brittle instead of turning bready. The dip does the work a tartar sauce would, without needing anything refrigerated: soy for salt, rice vinegar for acid, and dried tuna flakes steeped in hot water for the savory backbone. Fry in a deep pot rather than a skillet. Less oil surface means less spatter, and a lid nearby is the fastest way to end a grease fire.
Packing
Flour and salt go in one bag premeasured, split in half by a twist tie so you are not measuring at camp. Cod stays frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws on the drive in. Soy sauce and vinegar go in small screw-top bottles inside a zip bag; tuna flakes stay in their original packet.
Variations
- No beer on hand: cold seltzer works. The bubbles are what matter, not the malt.
- Skip the frying and pan-sear the floured cod in a couple tablespoons of oil. Less crust, far less oil to pack out.
- A squeeze of lime in the dip pushes it closer to ponzu.
https://okusno.je/oddaje/masterchef/pijana-ribica-food-truck-skupinski-izziv.html