Beer-Poached Catfish with Rice
Fish fillets simmered in lager with garlic, mushrooms, and lemon, spooned over rice.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 500 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
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Catfish fillets | 2 large | kept cold in the cooler, cooked the first night |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 3 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 4 cloves, chopped fine | |
| Green onions | 2, sliced | |
| Mushrooms | 4, stemmed and sliced | dried shiitake work if the cooler is tight |
| All-purpose flour | 1/3 cup | in a bag for dredging |
| Lager | 3 oz | whatever is already in the cooler |
| Lemon | 1/2 | |
| Worcestershire sauce | a few dashes | |
| White rice | 1 cup dry | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water, add the rice and a pinch of salt, cover, and cook until the water is gone. Pull it off the heat and set it aside covered while you work on the fish.
- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and green onion and cook until soft. Do not let the garlic take color.
- Shake the fillets in the bag of seasoned flour and lay them in the pan with the mushrooms.
- Pour in the beer, squeeze the lemon over the fish, and add the Worcestershire.
- Cook at a low simmer, turning once, until the fish is browned on both sides and flakes at the thickest part. Eight to ten minutes total for average fillets.
- Serve the fish over the rice and pour the pan liquid over everything.
This is a car-camp dinner, not a trail dinner. Fresh fish, butter, and a lemon all need a cooler, so cook it the night you drive in.
The flour is doing two jobs. It gives the fillets something to brown against, and what comes off in the pan thickens the beer into a gravy thin enough to soak into the rice. Cook the rice first and leave it covered; fish takes ten minutes and waits for nobody, while rice holds its heat fine. The beer mostly cooks off. What stays behind is malt and a little bitterness, which is what keeps the butter from tasting flat.
Packing
Fish goes in a zip bag at the bottom of the cooler, on ice, and gets cooked the first night. Flour, salt, and pepper go premixed in one small bag so the dredge is one step. Butter, garlic, onion, and lemon ride in the cooler together.
Variations
- Tilapia, trout, or any firm white fish takes the same treatment.
- No beer, or none you want to cook with: use water and an extra squeeze of lemon.
- Dried mushrooms rehydrated in a little hot water save cooler space, and the soaking liquid goes in the pan.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/catfish-in-a-beer-bath