Seafood Specials: Great Recipes that Help Save Oceans

Recipes from NRDC's home cooks and a few of our chef friends help you take the guesswork out of serving a healthy, feel-good seafood meal.

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Kerala-style Fried Fish

~ Shanti Menon, NRDC website editor, New York

Ingredients

• 1 pound farmed tilapia fillets
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or cayenne pepper)
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• About 3 tablespoons olive or canola oil for shallow frying

Preparation

1. Wash the fillets and pat them dry.
2. Combine the spices and salt in a small bowl; add vinegar and combine to form a paste.
3. Rub both sides of each fillet with the spice paste.
4. Heat oil in a shallow frying pan on medium-high heat. Fry fillets about two to three minutes on each side. Remove and serve immediately.

Serves 3 to 4.

Tips

Frying spicy fish can be a little messy -- a well-ventilated kitchen helps keep smoke and smells to a minimum. Also, try putting a little oil on your hands before handling the spice paste -- this helps keep the turmeric from staining your fingers yellow! Rice is the standard accompaniment to this dish.

Comments

In India, my grandmother would make this with a nice, firm fish from the morning's catch, sliced into very thin steaks. My aunt in New Jersey turned me on to using tilapia fillets -- they're always easy to find and work well for this recipe.

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