Fish That’s not Fishy

A few years ago, we discovered Barramundi, which is a sustainable sea bass. It is a delicious white fish that doesn’t taste fishy at all and doesn’t make you feel guilty for eating it. We really like it, but I tend to shy away from cooking too much fish at home. It’s so delicious and good for you, I need to serve it more often.

I shared a recipe for fish tacos using Barramundi with you before and you can find that recipe here. But I was looking for some other ways to serve it. I poked around the internet to find some inspiration and found a recipe for Pecan Crusted Barramundi from a blog called www.dinnerthendessert.com. I thought I would give that a try this week.

I find my Barramundi at BJ’s Wholesale Club in a package that contains 5 to 6 frozen fillets. Each fillet is individually wrapped, so you can just pull out what you need and pop the rest in the freezer again. To thaw the fish, simply place the packets in a bowl of cold water for 15 minutes, until they are soft.

The recipe is extremely simple and requires very little work. Most of my prep time for the meal went into snapping my green beans and cooking rice as my sides.

While your fish is thawing, throw some pecans into your food processor and pulse until they are the same consistency as bread crumbs. Mix 1/2 cup of the pecans with 1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs and mix well in a shallow bowl.

In another shallow bowl, add 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. onion powder and 1/4 tsp. kosher salt and beat together with a fork until well combined.

Once the fish is thawed, take one fillet at a time and dredge in the egg mixture, then gently press each side of the fish into the pecan and crumb coating. Repeat with each fillet until all are coated. Set them aside on a platter while you prepare your pan for frying.

Heat a pan with 3 Tbsp. of vegetable oil over medium heat. Place the fillets in the pan and fry until golden on both sides, about 3 – 4 minutes each side. Serve immediately with any sides you like.

The recipe I followed clearly used smaller fillets than I had, so she could fit 3 in a pan at once. My fillets were longer, and I needed to cook 4 fillets so I had to fry 2 at a time. The only downfall in that plan is that I chose to use my trusty cast iron pan and by the time I cooked the last 2 fillets, it was smokin’ hot and those fillets got a little darker than I wanted.

The review from all family members was great. If you would like to try the recipe, you can find it here.

The fish was flavorful, crunchy but moist. No tartar sauce was necessary, we just used a squeeze of lemon. I will definitely be using this recipe again. Next time, I will try to pulverize my pecans a bit more. In fact, I think I may throw the Panko crumbs in with the nuts to get the coating to a more consistent, fine texture.

Now that I remember how much we love Barramundi, it will be back on the menu more often.