Fish Nuggets by Rachel

Fish is always an easy weeknight dish.  It cooks quickly and is really easy to season.  To spice things up, I thought I'd give our friendly tilapia a little frying and they came out great.  The thing I like most about doing tilapia this way is that it keeps a flaky, white fish very moist because all the juices get contained in the shell.

Ingredients
about 1 lb of tilapia, filleted
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 - 1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of paprika
1 egg
1 tsbp water
canola oil for frying



- Give the tilapia a rinse and pat dry with paper towels.  Cut the fillets into pieces following the grain of the meat.  You can cut them any size you want, but I like them a little bigger.

- Set up your stations!  Any time you want to batter something to be fried, you'll always at least have flour and egg.  Use one bowl for the flour.  Use another bowl for the egg.  Add the one tablespoon of water to the egg and beat the mixture until the egg and water are incorporated.

- Use another bowl for the cornmeal.  Add the salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika to the cornmeal and mix until the spices are well distributed into the cornmeal.

- For each piece of fish, coat it first in the flour, then in the egg, then in the cornmeal mixture.  Repeat until all the pieces are covered fully.

nice and coated

- In a large skillet, cover the bottom of the pan with a layer of oil.  You probably want the oil to come up about 1/2 inch.  Heat on medium high for about 3-4 minutes.

- Place a few pieces of fish in the oil at a time and let them fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side, frying both sides until browned.

- Remove the cooked pieces and cool on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

- Let cool for about 5 minutes before digging in.  These suckers are HOT.

I used mine to stuff tacos and they were a HIT.  Whether you want to use them for fish tacos or not, they are great on their own as well.

Yum yum!  Time to eat! :)