Tilapia crusted with roasted peanuts served with a sweet Thai chili sauce and roasted potatoes

Tilapia encrusted with roasted peanuts served with roasted baby potatoes and topped with a sweet thai chili sauce

 Hello to my readers. I know I haven't been posting anything recently so I thought I would share this great recipe that I made this past weekend. I had some baby purple potatoes in the fridge so I wanted to cook them before they went bad.  I didn't want to do a traditional mashed potato since that seems boring and would look terrible for presentation so I went with my go-to roasted potato recipe. My mom wants to eat healthier so she bought some tilapia from Costco. I wanted to make the fish exciting instead of just pan searing it and such so I decided to roast some peanuts, and crust it in the fish.

My original plan was just to shell the peanuts, then grind it and place it on the fish however I thought that roasting the peanuts a bit would add another dimension to the dish. 

This is a great recipe to make for your mom for mother's day this weekend! Here is the recipe for each component:

Roast potatoes - Refer to my other post "How to make roasted potatoes"

Thai Chili's - For those wondering what a Thai chili looks like

Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons of fish sauce

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 grapefruit

1/2 lemon

a handful of chopped corriander

3 baby thai chilis deseeded 

3 cloves of garlic

3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar

1. In a bowl combine fish sauce, soy sauce, olive oil, squeeze the grapefruit dry, add the juice of half a lemon, chopped corriander, chop up the thai chili into very small pieces, crush garlic into a paste, and add in the rice wine vinegar. 

Tip: Whether you use a mortar and pestle or just a chef knife to mince the garlic; sprinkle a handful of salt on top. By adding the salt you are adding another element to help break down the garlic. 

2. Whisk all the ingredients together until combined.

Roasted Peanut Mixture
1 bag of peanuts

1. Take the peanuts out of their shells and grind until crumbly. Do not grind until its fine, you want the peanuts to have some texture. 

2. Get a saucepan and pour the mixture into it and turn on the heat. Stir the mixture around for about 5-8 minutes on a medium heat until you smell a nice roasting smell. ROASTING SMELL NOT BURNING.  

3. After the peanuts have been roasted pour into a container and place it to the side to cool down.

Tilapia
# of Tilapia depends on how many people you are serving - You can really use this recipe for any fish as long as there isn't any skin and bones
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
 
TIP: I cut the tilapia in half so that way the portions look nice after they are cooked. A package of Tilapia is enough for a whole lot of people. 

1. Pat the tilaipa dry and season with a bit of salt. 
In a bowl whisk together the eggs and fish sauce until fully combined. 

2. Bring the tilapia into the egg mixture and let it get wet. After you have dunked in the egg mixture put it into the peanut mixture and try to coat the tilapia in as many crushed peanuts as you can. 

3. In a heated non-stick sautee pan add in a tablespoon of olive oil until smoking and swirl around the pan. 

4. Place the peanut crusted tilapia into the pan and give about 4-5 minutes per side. Touch the tilapia from time to time to see if it is cooked or not. If the Tilapia is cooked it should be quite resistance. If it is not cooked the Tilapia will be a bit squishy.    

Use a spatula instead of tongs so that way the peanuts won't fall off of the cooked tilaipa. Place ontop of some roasted potatoes and drizzle some of that delicious sweet Thai chili sauce. 

DONE.

To any readers who are moms out there.... Happy Mothers Day and make your child or kid or husband or whoever make this dish for you!


KMW