Fish Stew is something very easy to make at home, and is pretty easy to make up in the woods with the right gear. It may not be something I'd make over an open fire, but it's certainly doable on a woodstove or camp stove.

Mark French and I tried it out back in March 2023 while ice hot tent fishing in Bauline.

First I fried up and rendered out some bacon trimmings from my recent run of homemade Applewood smoked bacon last week. Then I drained some of the fat and added the chopped Onions which were fried golden brown. A little salt and pepper were added at this time too.

While that cooked away we peeled and chunked up 10ish potatoes.

With onions browned up we added about 2L of water, brought to a boil and added the potato.

Cooking on the woodstove worked well, heat was adjusted as needed by varying the amount of fuel wood added and adjusting the damper.

When the potatoes were probe tender we added our fillets of fresh fish laying them right on top to boil/steam. These did not take long to cook.

When the fish was cooked we broke up the large pieces, mixed it through the stew and let it rest off heat while we made toast.

We seen the paper towel toast technique online and decided to give it a try. The paper towel serves two purposes: keep the bread clean, and keep it from sticking to the stove (which it did when we first attempted it).

The towel worked great, the bread toasted beautifully and the paper towel didn't catch fire or scorch!

I loaded up my Sea to Summit X-bowl and enjoyed an absolutely fantastic hot feed of delicious stew right here on the ice of the frozen lake!

Another backwoods meal fit for a king! The flavours were perfect, we each added a little more pepper and just a dash of salt to taste.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith