panko crusted tilapia with coconut curry sauce

So its not the best photo - but I tend to not carry my camera on me, so I'm left with my camera phone. Anyway - I was in the mood to come up with some sort of dish that included panko crusted tilapia, jasmine rice, and some kind of yummy sweet/spicy sauce. When I say spicy.... I mean uses spices... I can't handle the heat! So this is not a hot spicy dish! But it is a delicious dish and very affordable!

Panko Crusted Tilapia:
2 servings

Ingredients -

• 1c Panko bread crumbs
• 1t paprika
• 1t dry mustard
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tilapia filets (depends on the size of the fish and how big of an appetite your boyfriend has)
• salt and pepper

Directions -

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine the panko, dry mustard, and paprika. Pour into a shallow dish or plate. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and pour onto a separate plate. Season the tilapia with salt and pepper. You can also adjust the amount of mustard and paprika in the panko mixture. we didn't measure, so the 1t was a rough estimate!
   
3. Dredge the fish in the egg wash and then follow in the panko mixture and then set onto a baking sheet. I covered my baking sheet with foil and sprayed with cooking spray to prevent sticking.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of the fish. You want the fish to flake apart with the touch of a fork.
   

Coconut Curry Sauce:
serves 2

Ingredients -

• 1/2c - 1c canned coconut milk*
• 2t soy sauce
• 1/2t curry powder (I recommend Madras Curry Powder, which you can find at whole foods)
• 1 1/2T packed brown sugar
  
• 2t unseasoned rice vinegar or cider vinegar
• 2t canola oil
• 2t cornstarch dissolved in 1 1/2t cold water

Directions -

1. Combine all ingredients except for the cornstarch mixture in a small saucepan. Whisk together to combine.
2. Heat over medium high heat. Before mixture comes to a boil, add the cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the mixture boils, continue to cook for one more minute. Sauce should now be thick. This is the time to taste as well. We added about 1t of paprika to the sauce to cut the sweetness. Sauce will be thick.
3. Pull off heat and pour over fish/rice. Enjoy!

* The original recipe called for 1/2c coconut milk, but we increased it to about 1c instead. Because of this, we also had to add more cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce a bit more. We used lite coconut milk and you'd never know it was lite - so you may as well cut the calories/fat!


So I made jasmine rice to accompany the meal. I think jasmine or basamati would be great. Its got kind of a thai/indian twist to it, so I think rice is appropriate. We also got the packaged Naan you can get from whole foods - its just a fun bread to serve with the meal so you can sop up the leftover sauce with the bread. The best part - the sauce took 10 minutes to make, fish took 10 minutes to prep, rice practically cooks itself.. its a very simple meal and it was really delicious! Highly recommend!

Submitted by LAUREN!