Cornish-Style Fish Stew, Camp Version
Tomato and fennel broth with dried seaweed and shelf-stable seafood, plus chile-butter crab toast on the side.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 700 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
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Olive or rapeseed oil | 2 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Dried leek and onion flakes | 1/3 cup total | |
| Fennel seed | 1 tsp | stands in for the fresh bulb |
| Dried chilli flakes | 1/4 tsp | |
| Garlic granules | 1 tsp | |
| Sun-dried tomatoes | 3/4 cup, chopped | the oil-free kind, or drain them |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | tube, not can |
| Fish or seafood bouillon | 2 cubes | |
| Dried sea spaghetti or wakame | 1/2 cup | any dried seaweed works |
| Roasted red and yellow peppers | 1 jar, 8 oz | drained and sliced |
| Canned or pouched firm white fish | two 5 oz tins | cod, pollock, or mackerel in oil |
| Canned mussels | 1 tin, 4 oz | packed in brine or oil |
| Canned squid or clams | 1 tin, 4 oz | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp | |
| Lemon | 1 | or 1 tbsp crystallized lemon |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Canned crab meat | 4 oz | |
| Nduja or hot soppressata | 1 oz | cured, keeps a week out of the cooler |
| Flatbread or hard rolls | 4 to 6 pieces |
Method
- Heat the oil in a pot. Add the leek and onion flakes, fennel seed, chilli, and garlic granules. Stir for a minute until they smell like something and start to color.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, bouillon, and 700 ml of water. Bring to a boil, then hold it at a simmer for 10 minutes so the tomatoes rehydrate and the base thickens.
- Stir in the seaweed and simmer another 5 minutes until it softens.
- Add the peppers and all the canned seafood with their oil. The fish is already cooked, so bring it back to a bare simmer and pull it off. Longer cooking turns it to floss.
- Add the parsley, lemon zest and juice, salt, and pepper. Stir once, gently.
- Smear nduja on the flatbread and toast it over the flame until the fat runs. Top with crab and eat it alongside the bowl.
The original is a chef’s dish built on a fish counter: live mussels, razor clams, whole gurnard. None of that travels. What does travel is the structure underneath it, which is a tomato and fennel broth with seafood dropped in at the last minute. Tins and pouches carry that structure fine.
The order matters more than the ingredients. Everything in a tin is already cooked, so it goes in at the end and only warms through. Build the broth first and give it real time, because dried leek and sun-dried tomato need ten minutes of simmering before they stop tasting like packaging. The nduja toast is the part worth the trouble: the cured pork fat melts into the bread, and the cold crab on top is the whole point of the contrast.
Packing
Aromatics, fennel seed, chilli, garlic, bouillon, and parsley go in one bag as a spice premix. Sun-dried tomatoes and seaweed in a second. The tins are the heavy part; count them before you decide this is a backpacking meal.
Variations
- No tins? Freeze-dried shrimp and dehydrated fish flakes rehydrate in the broth in about 10 minutes.
- Skip the seafood entirely and use two cans of white beans. Drop the fish bouillon for vegetable.
- A handful of instant rice or small pasta in step 3 turns it from stew into a full pot meal.
https://hedgecombers.com/andy-appletons-cornish-fish-stew-with-crab-and-nduja-toast