Pilot - Crunchy Tilapia and Green Curry Pasta

Pilot - Crunchy Tilapia and Green Curry Pasta

 Intro

My boyfriend and I recently decided to live and eat healthier. However, we are not the kind of household that would eat bland baked fish and chicken and a bunch of greens that make us feel like rabbits. So, with that said, I decided to create a blog that record all of my experiments with food, mixing traditional Asian ingredients and methodologies with what one can find in normal grocery stores... an Asian version of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homecooking on the Food Network. My goal for this blog is to offer alternatives for people who want to cook Asian food at home but don't want to go to or have International/Asian grocery stores available nearby. I will try my best to find as many ingredients as possible in local American grocery stores. Hopefully, there are grocery stores in your area with an Asian section because some ingredients are just not replaceable. 

Also, I was craving fried fish so I decided to add the Crunchy Tilapia. You can use any meat you want. You can even grill up some skirt steaks, cut them up and add to it, if you want. Just an idea. To be honest, the fried fish was a little more work than I wanted to do but I already started making them and needed to finish it. 

Hope you guys enjoy and please comment (compliments, criticisms, and/or suggestions are welcome). 

 Lets Get Cookin'

1. Ingredients

Green Curry is a Thai dish. My mom makes it with all fresh Thai herbs since she grows them in her backyard. I don't have that luxury, since every plants (including two cactii) I tried to keep alive seem to die. So, everything is store bought. Also, I've mastered the art of "guestimation" and don't cook with exact measurements... (sorry!) BUT I will try my best to give you amounts of ingredients in common unit of measures. :)

My ingredients are: 

• Fish - optional
• About 1 big Tilapia Filet (fresh or frozen). If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator overnight first. 
• Some All-purpose flour - about 1.5 cups
• Panko Bread Crumbs (pic below)
• 2 Eggs
• Water - About 3 TBSP
• A pinch of Salt and Pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying

• Green Curry Sauce
• Olive oil - 2 TBSP
• Green Curry Paste - 2 TBSP (pic below)
• Coconut Milk - 1 Can (pic below) Set aside 4 TBSP for garnish
• Thai Chili Pepper - 2 peppers (optional, the Green Curry Paste alone is spicy enough for most Americans, but I like a little more heat than most people. I'm Thai after all. :D)
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Fish Sauce - 2 TBSP
• Sugar - 2 TBSP 
• Chicken stock - about a cup, maybe a cup and a half
• Fresh Basil - a bunch of leaves (usually, you'd want to use the Thai/Vietnamese Basil, but surprisingly I could not find them, even in H Mart near my house. It still tastes good so you can use regular basil leaves)
• Whatever veggies and mushroom. - optional - For this I got a can of Cut Young Corn ( pic below) and Enoki Mushrooms (my bf likes them). If you want, you can even forgo the veggies but since we're trying to be healthy, I figured it's a good opportunity to add as much veggies as I can.

• Pasta, extra crunch and Garnish
• Dry Pasta - 2 Serving (anything you want; for this, I used the Barilla Multigrain Thin Spaghetti)
• Cilantro - optional
• Green Onions - optional
• Bean sprouts (get the skinny ones with small heads) - optional

2. Preparation

I like to start with washing all of the ingredients that need to be clean. Pics below.

  

Then, do everything you need to do on the chopping board. 

Chop green onions and cilantro. Set aside

Stack, roll up, and chop the basil leaves. Set aside

 

Finely chop the 2 cloves of garlic. And cut the chili peppers diagonally (or finely chop). I cut the peppers into chunks because it's easier to pick out after they're cooked. Set aside.

 Cut the fish diagonally into about a half inch think small pieces. 

3. Cook

Make pasta according to instructions on the box. Drain and set aside. 
 
Bread and fried fish according to instruction (below) and set aside.

• preheat vegetable oil on stove with medium heat
• lightly beat eggs, water, salt and pepper
• coat fish with flour
• coat fish in eggs
• coat in panko
• drop the coated fish in hot oil until golden brown on all sides

Make sauce.

Heat olive oil in sauce pan on medium heat for about 1 minute or 2. Drop in the green curry paste. Stir fry the paste in oil for a minute

Drop in the garlic and peppers and stir for a minute or two

Drop in the harder to cook vegetable first (corn). Stir. Then drop in the easier to cook vegetable (mushrooms). Stir for about 3 minutes. 

Pour the can (minus the 4 TBSP set aside) of coconut milk into the sauce pan. Stir.

Pour chicken stock into the can of coconut milk. Then pour it into the sauce pan. Keep stirring until the sauce lightly boils. Do not let the sauce boil too much because it will curdle and ruined. 

Then put in the chopped basil and stir.

Now, lets put them all together

Pile the raw sprouts into the bowl. Then, the cooked pasta. Place the fried fish on top. Sprinkle the green onions and cilantro on top. Pics below.

 Pour the sauce on top, garnish with a TBSP of the set aside coconut milk, and VOILA! Lets EAT!

 I know it doesn't look that great. I have to alter the recipe a bit to add more colors. Maybe add some thinly sliced red peppers. However, it actually taste AMAZING. It's light, yet creamy. I'm actually glad I didn't use the thai basil because the regular basil makes the sauce sweeter. The thai basil would've been too strong. The sauce absorbed into the fish's coating a little and OMG it was great!