Recipe: Spicy Tilapia Fishcakes with a Crispy Coconut Coating
Have you tried Tilapia? I’ll admit, I don’t have good memories of fishcakes. Growing up, when someone said fishcake I would think of a soggy, batter coated starch ball with a slightly past its best fishy flavour. After eating clean for so long, I can’t imagine ever going near one of those again, but I thought it would be a great idea to recreate them into something much more appetising.
I was thrilled with how these turned out; the tilapia is mild flavoured and works extremely well with the sweet potato and chilli. The coating turns crispy and golden rather than soggy, whilst the inside remains fluffy. Try them – this is what fish cakes should taste like!
Recipe: Spicy Tilapia Fishcakes with a Crispy Coconut Coating
Author: Suz Crawt
Recipe type: Dinner
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 500g tilapia fillets
- Half can coconut milk
- 500g sweet potatoes, diced
- Zest 1 lime
- 2 red chilli peppers, deseeded and finely chopped
- Chunk fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 2 large eggs
- 50g ground almonds
- 50g desiccated coconut
- 1 tbsp coconut flour
- Coconut oil
Instructions
- Submerge the tilapia fillets in a saucepan with the coconut milk and just enough additional water to cover them. Bring to the boil, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes so that the fish is just cooked.
- Steam the sweet potatoes for 7 or 8 minutes, until soft. Mash in a bowl, before stirring in the chilli, ginger and spring onions. Add the fish and the coconut milk, before mashing again and seasoning to taste.
- Beat the two eggs together in a shallow dish. In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds, desiccated coconut and coconut flour. You should now have three dishes arranged side by side – the mashed fishcake contents, the beaten eggs, and the coating.
- Roll the fishcake mixture into balls in your palm. One by one, coat lightly with the beaten egg, before rolling them in the almond and coconut mixture. Set aside.
- When ready to cook, heat a little coconut oil in a large, heavy based pan. Carefully place the fishcakes into the pan, and cook for 3 or 4 minutes each side until crisp and golden.
