Camp Fish Tacos in Beer-Bubble Batter
Fresh-caught white fish, a sparkling-water batter, and a pot of hot oil at the tailgate.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 65
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| White fish fillets | 2 lb | halibut, cod, or whatever came off the boat; cut into 1-inch strips |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | premeasured at home with the baking powder and salt |
| Baking powder | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 1/2 tsp | plus more for the fish and the finished pieces |
| Eggs | 2 | |
| Sparkling water | 1 cup | cold, opened right before mixing |
| Vegetable oil | 2 quarts | or enough to fill your fryer to its line |
| Corn tortillas | 12 | warmed on the grate |
| Cabbage, lime, hot sauce | to serve | shredded cabbage keeps a week in the cooler |
Method
- Cut the fish into 1-inch strips, blot them dry, and salt both sides. Wet fish sheds batter, so this step is not optional.
- Set the propane fryer on level ground away from tents and bring the oil to 350°F. Use a thermometer; guessing gives you either raw batter or burnt batter.
- Whisk the flour mix, eggs, and sparkling water into a batter about the thickness of pancake batter. Let it sit ten minutes while the oil comes up.
- Dip a few strips at a time, let the excess run off, and lower them into the oil away from you. Do not crowd the pot or the temperature crashes.
- Fry about two minutes a side, turning once, until deep gold. Five minutes total per piece is the ballpark.
- Lift onto a paper-towel-lined plate, salt immediately, and let the oil come back to 350°F before the next batch.
- Warm tortillas on the grill grate. Build with cabbage, lime, and hot sauce.
This is a shore-lunch recipe: it only makes sense when you have fish that came out of the water that day and a vehicle to haul oil in. The sparkling water is doing real work in the batter. Carbon dioxide comes out of solution in the hot oil and leaves the coating open and light instead of dense, and the baking powder pushes the same direction.
Temperature is the whole game. At 350°F the crust sets before the oil soaks in; below that the batter drinks oil and goes limp. Frying three or four strips at a time and waiting for the oil to recover between batches is slower than dumping everything in, and it is the difference between crisp and greasy. Fry oil is a pack-out problem, so bring a sealable jug for the cooled oil and do not pour it in the dirt.
Packing
Flour, baking powder, and salt go in one zip bag at home so camp mixing is one pour. Fish and eggs live in the cooler on ice. Bring the thermometer and a metal spider or tongs; plastic utensils melt.
Variations
- No fryer? Two inches of oil in a deep cast iron pot over a liquid-fuel stove works, but watch the temperature harder.
- Skip the batter and grill the strips in foil with lime and chili powder if the fryer feels like too much setup.
https://campfirefoodie.com/the-best-camping-fish-taco-recipe