Mango Wrapped Coconut Macadamia Nut Crusted Tilapia

I love me some fresh seafood, I wish I lived on the coast just for this reason.  When I worked on a cruise ship having fresh seafood in every port was not an issue, it was amazing!!!

Myself and my friends would have our favorite spots to go to in each port, and although they all had great fresh seafood, there was one place was my favorite…Cozumel Mexico!

We would go up into town, now I mean up in town past all the tourist spots where the locals eat and shop, to the “Market”.  Now this was not like our kind of markets here in the US, although the market was in a building, there were no doors.
And everything was out in the open; fruits, vegetables, Meats, breads, oh yes I did say ‘Meats”, out in all it’s glory, hanging and flies everywhere.  Yes this was not appealing, but I really didn’t go there for the meat.  Of course the produce was out of this world fresh, oranges and melons that were so sweet it was like eating candy.  Fresh tortillas being made right in front of you, this was really was one the highlights of visiting Cozumel.
Right outside of this market was a courtyard in a “U” shape, and when it was closed it would look like just a bunch of garage doors.  But when open, the garage doors would lift to reveal all these individual kitchens.
All with there own specially dishes, but we only ate at this one kitchen every Friday like clock work.  We’d go early into the market get some fruit, veggies, really whatever appealed to us and what we wanted to cook for lunch.
Yes I said cook, this one Kitchen would let me use the kitchen to cook whatever we bought in the market, it was awesome.
The only thing we would get from them was some of the Freshest Red Snapper and Grouper I ever had, we’d be there when the doors opened and then here comes the fisherman walking up with a cooler.  He had just got off his boat with this fresh fish and we would pick the ones we want and the kitchen would cook it right up. Head, body, tail and all and serve up with white rice.  

My boyfriend at the time loved the head, I will not go into detail on what he ate from that, I was happy to let him eat that part. LOL

So I came up with this fish dish for Fish Friday’s in my house!!  Plus it does have that Caribbean flare!

Mango Wrapped Coconut Macadamia Nut Crusted Tilapia

Ingredients

Coconut, panko breadcrumbs, macadamia nut

in a skillet add butter, oil, shallots & red pepper

Cook for about 2 minutes

add panko breadcrumbs, nuts & coconut flakes

once combined (above), remove from heat and add brown sugar, set aside to cool

peel mango

with peeler, peel long ribbons of mango for wrapping

I used a whole fillet and cut it in half

starting at one end take mango ribbons and start wrapping fillets

wrapped fillets

add topping to each fillet, you can use as little or as much
(I used the leftovers for a salad topping – recipe to come)

then bake

done

I served it with a Mango Avocado Salad with Balsamic Poppy Seed Dressing
(recipe coming soon)

Recipe

Mango Wrapped Coconut Macadamia Nut Crusted Tilapia

1 whole tilapia fillet, cut in half 
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
1/2 cup coconut flakes, unsweetened
2 tsp. brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. butter (you can use all olive oil)
2 tbsp. lime infused olive oil ***see note below
1 large shallot, chopped
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 mango
salt to taste

Add butter, oil, shallots and red pepper flakes to a skillet and cook over med. to med. high heat, once butter has melted cook for 1 – 2 minutes more.
Add breadcrumbs, coconut and nuts, stirring to coat with butter mixture, once all is coated then remove from heat stir in brown sugar and taste for needed salt.  Set aside to cool

Peel mango, then take peeler and run it around the mango, trying to make long ribbons of mango.  If they break that is okay you can piece it together. (the remaining mango, use in salad recipe)
Take ribbons and start at one end of the fish and continue wrapping to other end, place on baking sheet, top with breadcrumb mixture, you can add as much or as little as you want.  Keep leftover crumb mixture for salad topping.

Bake fish at 400 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes, you want topping to be golden brown, my oven I cooked it for 15 minutes and fish was perfect.

You can serve the fish with anything you like, I served mine with a salad, I will post that recipe in the next few days 🙂

***Note – Lime infused olive oil, I got this oil at a specialty store, you do not have to use this oil, you can use plan olive oil, if you want that hint of lime then add the juice of half a lime in the crumb mixture when you add the brown sugar, if you want more lime flavor add the juice of the other half, and you can always add the zest of the lime as well!!
You also do not need to use butter, you can just use 4 tbsp. oil in the recipe.

Hope you enjoy this one and hey tell all your friends about me and my blog…Enjoy!!