Bush cooking with Roothy: Coconut fish

CAST a line and hook a juicy fish at your riverside campsite… or in Roothy’s case, take a shortcut and just buy some not-as-fresh fish from the nearest supermarket.

Either way, you’re having fish for dinner.

Last week Roothy took our taste buds to Mexico with the delectable Chook Amigo. This week he’s united oil and beer batter once again for a unique seafood culinary creation. And no, it’s not beer-battered fish and chips.

It’s beer-battered fish with a twist. In this case, that twist is coconut.

Packets of shredded coconut are available from supermarkets for dirt-cheap prices, so it’s a great idea to keep some in storage for a rainy day.

But, first things first: combine an egg, beer, self-raising flour, half a teaspoon of sugar and salt to make the beer batter. To give the batter some tropical flair, add a dash of lime juice.

Cut the fish (or prawns) into strips, lather them with the batter, and then roll the strips around in a bed of shredded coconut. Finally, whack it in a pot of boiling oil until they’re a crispy golden brown colour.

Roothy reckons the secret weapon to make this dish even better is sweet chilli sauce – can’t argue with that logic.

The fish works beautifully with a side of rice and a couple of tinnies