Before I get screamed at for "ruining" fresh fish let me say the idea of back woods fried fish was not my idea.... However I have come to think of it as an unbeatable meal.

Four or five years ago we started experimenting with deep frying in the Q.  We bring a couple of Nalgenes to hold oil (even hot) and a little thermometer to check oil temp... Then in goes the battered fish.  We also bring in Onions and Potatoes to make chips and onion rings.

All I can say is wow!!!

We cook over flame - this takes an hour or more to do it right, and make sure you have plenty of cooking wood as you will need to maintain oil temp.  Potatoes first - little salt and they are perfect.  Fish next and you have one heck of a meal.  Bring plenty of paper towels for soaking up grease (save and they make excellent fire starters too!).

However - we like beer batter, takes oil baths very well and crisps up nicely.  What we do not like is carrying a six pack of beer... it is tough to keep people out of the beer and the weight sucks!  

So, who has some good batter recipes they use at home?  BTW tried "Shore Lunch" brand and we are not thrilled.  We would love one for Jalapeño poppers - even the beer batter just never sticks - but are a great easy appetizer the first night. Ones that do not use beer would be helpful too...

Cheers!