Do Try This At Home: Tilapia with Coconut Curry Sauce

I typically love experimenting with new ingredients and recipes as often as possible; it's always exciting to tackle something new. When I decided to attempt cooking fish for the first time, however, I found myself riddled with anxiety. For some reason I had decided that fish was one of those delicate proteins that I was sure to mess up.

Everything about this experience was intimidating, starting with the shopping process. "I don't event know how to buy fish," I thought to myself as I walked into the super market. I took a look at both the fresh and frozen options. Since I was pretty sure that something would go wrong with this experiment, I decided to go the cheaper route and bought frozen tilapia. After leaving the store I did a little research about my selection and found that Stop and Shop is committed to supporting sustainable seafood practices. I was glad to know that my frozen filets had likely come from a well managed farm.

That fish sat in my freezer for a month before I decided that I was feeling brave enough to attempt cooking it. I moved it from the freezer to the fridge before heading to bed one night, and then spent the next day thinking about how I was going to cook it. I chatted with friends, took a poll in the office, and searched the web for recipes. People agreed that tilapia was incredibly easy to cook and, perhaps more importantly, that it was almost impossible to screw up. There was also some consensus about the best way to cook it- broiling was was going to be fast and simple. By the time I got home I was confident that I was up to the "challenge".

Guess what... My homemade, broiled tilapia was delicious! It really was as easy to prepare as I'd been promised, and the coconut curry sauce that I made to pair with the fish was bursting with flavor.

I'm curious, what are your favorite fish recipes? 

Broiled Tilapia with Coconut Curry Sauce

Servings: 4 Serving Size: 1 (6 oz) filet with 1/4 of the sauce Points Plus*: 7 pts
(Adapted from Skinnytaste.com)

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 tsp Toasted sesame oil, divided 

2 cloves Garlic, minced 

1/4 cup Finely chopped red or green bell pepper 

3/4 cup Finely chopped onion

3/4 cup Finely chopped carrots 

2 tsp (plus a pinch) ground ginger

2 tsp Red curry paste 

1/2 tsp Ground cumin 

1 tsp Sriracha 

1 tbsp Chili garlic sauce

4 tsp Soy sauce 

2 tsp Fish sauce 

1 (14-ounce) can Light coconut milk

4 (6-ounce) Tilapia fillets 

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste 

Onion powder to taste

Directions

Gather your ingredients and preheat broiler.

Since the sauce is going to come together pretty quickly, you'll want to be sure to chop your vegetables before you start cooking. I used my tiny food processor to get a nice fine chop on everything in no time at all.

Prepare a 9" x 13" baking tray with cooking spray and set aside.

Heat half of the sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add pepper, onions, carrots and ginger and cook for 5 minutes.

Stir in curry paste, cumin, sriracha, and chili garlic sauce, cooking for another minute. Add soy sauce, fish sauce and coconut milk, and bring to a simmer (do not boil). I simmered the sauce for about 10 minutes to allow the carrots time to soften a little. The carrots still had a little bite to them which I thought was a nice contrast to the flaky fish.

While the sauce simmers, prepare your fish. Brush the filets with the remaining oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, ground ginger and onion powder to taste. Place fish on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
Broil 7 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. 

Serving Suggestion: This fish was perfect served over a bed of jasmine rice. I plated it with a side of grilled vegetables to round out the meal. If you didn't have the points to spare, I'd think that this would be just as delicious served over some fresh spinach or tofu shirataki noodles.

I found that this recipe made enough sauce for at least six servings, so you could add another two filets of fish and still have enough sauce to top each. The points plus value of each serving would likely decrease a little if you decided to do that.

*PointsPlus values calculated using the Recipe Builder on the Weight Watchers website