Rainy Day Recipe 1: Tilapia!

I never get around to posting these delish recipes that pop into my head!! It's so frustrating and then I forget all about it!! But this time I've finally done it!!! A yummy and healthy tilapia recipe with a delish orange sweet and spicy sauce!!! I hope you guys enjoy the recipe as much as I enjoyed making it, I'll try and keep my camera on hand more often when I come up with these recipes! 

Note: This recipe was comprised of leftovers that were in the house, but you can easily pick them up at your local grocery store ｡◕‿◕｡

Ingredients:

Tilapia (as many or as few as you desire)

Kikkoman Panko (or any brand of bread crumbs)

Eggs (number varies on how much fish you'll be cooking)

A tsp of baking powder (this is optional, I used this because we had no flour 

（ ＴДＴ）)

Salt and pepper + plus any other seasonings of your choice (I used garlic salt and Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb)

OLIVE OIL (Unfortunately we had none so I was forced to use vegetable oil, yuck! But to truly make this a good recipe, use olive oil or EVOO, doesn't matter if it's light or not)

Step 1:

My tilapia was individually wrapped and frozen so I had to thaw them in cool water first, luckily it didn't take long! You want to rinse off your fish when thawed and then pat them dry with a paper towel.

Step 2:

Again, if you were maybe doing this the NORMAL way, your battering sequence would be flour -> egg -> panko. But I wasn't about to freeze my butt off in the rain for some flour!! So instead I beat one egg, and added a few pinches of baking powder to the egg mix. I have no idea what this does, but my grandma recommended it! (I think she just wanted to sabotage it was all ヽ(　￣д￣;)ノ)

Since I lacked flour, I have to be really gentle here so as not to make all the panko fall off!! Much to my surprise, it stayed on pretty well.

Step 3:

Be careful here! Don't want oil to splatter on your fingers and arms! I had the burner on about medium heat, I didn't want the oil bubbles to knock off the panko from the fish. Season the side facing up and let the fish cook for about 7 to 8 minutes and GENTLY flip the fish over. The panko for the majority should still be on! Season the other side and cook for about another 6 to 7 minutes. While these are only estimates, if you are unsure whether or not the fish is done, just split open the thickest part with a knife or fork - if it's pure white with no pinkish juice to be found, you should be good to go! 

Ah also, remember to only use enough oil to cook one side at a time, we're not deep frying here!

Step 4:

Once the fillets are done you can either eat it now, or set it aside and work on a sauce - in this case, I'm using a mix of four different items: 

1. Polar Orange Marmalade - Only $1.00 at Shoppers Geocery Store!
2. Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce - I try and limit the salt I take in, so this this helps alot :)
3. Dave's Gourmet Ghost Pepper - WARNING!! THIS S**T IS HOT! I bought it at World Market and we've had it for quite some time (not expired yet though lol), and as you can see, we only use A LITTLE AT A TIME, noted by the fact that the bottle still appears full. Darn thing has it's own warning label and everything for kids and pregnant women ∑(O_O；)
4. Gunter's Orange Blossom Honey - Since I was sick last week, I've stocked up on honey for all my teas, this brand by far is my favorite, what a coincidence that it's orange blossom too!

Step 5:

O.M.G. guys... I over did the ghost pepper *facepalm* you see that dash of orange/red near the spoon? That's about 2 teaspoons of ghost pepper!! Needless to say I had dilute it with more of everything else so it turned out okay :) If I had to estimate how much I used of each I'd say...

• About 5 to 6 tbsp of the orange marmalade
• About 1 tbsp of honey
• About 2 tsp of ghost pepper (you can always red pepper flakes instead, probably safer too!)
• About 7 to 8 tbsp of soy sauce 

You can always play around with these ratios to your liking, and welcome to make up your own sauce too, I just want to put out there what I used. You'll then want to microwave your sauce for about 35 seconds, and then stir REALLY WELL if you use the ghost pepper, or just stir well otherwise (^_^;) grandma bought these awesome sauce bowls that are BPA free and remains stainless when you heat them up! I'm taking these with me when I move out.

 Step 6:
Sit back and enjoy the deliciousness! I had the stupidest look on my face for sure when I took the first bite, I couldn't stop smiling at how good it was! Here is the fish plated with my over cooked rice.... I got so caught up in making the fish I had forgotten all about it! （ ＴДＴ） As you can see there are orange peels spread across the fish, if you use my orange marmalade sauce you can always just filter them out with a fork after heating the mixture up. I like the bitterness of the peel and the sweetness of the marmalade though, so I kept them in. I also made the fish look all fancy by sprinkling the top with black sesame seeds!

Good Luck! Don't burn the house down!! 

Bai bai ー( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ