Coconut Crusted Fish Fillet

Coconut Crusted Fish Fillet 

Memories of Second Year have coalesced into a stream of images - warm, blinding sun, crisp golden leaves and, just last saturday, dancing snowflakes and flying snowballs. Winter has me eating like some kind of starving carnivore and I need something healthy to balance out my chocolate cravings. This coconut crusted fish fillet recipe I found online was the perfect solution. 

Coconut goes beautifully with banana bread but, being deprived of an oven in my apartment, I've resorted to using my left over desiccated coconut in my cooking instead. I call this recipe the "Rushing for Tutorials Coconut Crusted Fish" because I used to make them before my 2pm tutorials at Waterloo (and it was an excuse not to read any more cases). 

for the crust: stir together shredded coconut, flour, curry powder, chilli powder, cumin, salt & pepper 

If you don't have shredded coconut, you can use brown sugar instead 

Crack an egg into a bowl 

Spread the egg onto both sides of the fillet

You can put the coconut mix onto a plate and let it coat the fish, or you can be lazy like me and save washing by using a spoon

take a chunk of butter and melt it onto a hot pan with some olive oil (to prevent the butter from burning)

On medium heat, saute the fillets on both sides til crispy and golden brown

...and that's lunch!

Coconut Crusted Fish Fillet

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

•                4 firm white fish fillets, such as whiting

•                1 cup shredded coconut

•                2/3 cup flour

•                1 teaspoon curry powder

•                1/2 teaspoon cumin

•                1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

•                1/2 teaspoon ground pepper (or to taste)

•                2 tablespoons butter

•                2 tablespoons olive oil

•                1 egg

For the Mango Salsa: 

•                (I didn't do this for lack of time, but I'd have loved to.) 

•                1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

•                1/4 cup chopped red onion

•                Juice of 1/2 lime

•                1/4 cup chopped red pepper

•                1 tablepoon vinegar

•                1 tablespoon sugar

•                1 tablespoon vegetable oil

•                2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

•                1/2 teaspoon curry powder

•                Salt and pepper taste

Preparation:

1.              Make mango salsa: Stir together the chopped mango, chopped onion, lime juice, chopped pepper, vinegar, sugar, vegetable oil, cilantro, curry powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2.              Mix 1/3 cup flour, coconut, cumin, curry powder, salt and pepper together on a plate.

3.              In shallow bowl, whisk the egg with 1 tablespoon water. Place the remaining 1/3 cup flour on a second plate.

4.              Dredge the fillets first in the plain flour (shaking off excess), then in the egg mixture, and finely in the coconut mixture to coat both sides.

5.              Heat the olive oil and butter over medium high heat, then sauté the fillets until browned on both sides and cooked though on the inside, about 2-3 minutes per side.

Serve fillets warm with rice and mango salsa.