Tasty Tuesday - Thai Coconut Fish Sticks

In perusing the web ideas, inspiration and recipes, I recently came across The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog. The creators of the blog, Tom and Ali, are from the beautiful bayside town of Bellingham, WA and their primary focus is 'Healthy, Wholesome, Gluten-Free Recipes.' I am in lust with their blog. Every recipe posted is unique, healthy and sounds delicious.

They also have a cookbook and a 28 Day Elimination and Detoxification Diet. I wasn't going to purchase the book and do the detox, but after reading all the comments raving about the detox, I couldn't pass it up. So, I ordered the book this morning, and should have it just in time to make February my Detox month. More on that in a later post, but I am super excited. Follow the link to read more about the detox - it sounds amazing.

Back to this week's featured recipe! As mentioned before, I am always looking for fun, unique and tasty ways to prepare fish. I have a freezer full of salmon, halibut, ling cod and sea bass but so often the most common preparation for these fish is pan fried with butter and garlic or baked with butter and garlic. Yes, this is tasty, but it also gets old after a while. Especially when you pair it with dark leafy greens. I need some sort of flavor, and love a bit of spice.

Most of the ingredients involved in this recipe were not things I had hanging around in the cupboards, and couldn't be found at Safeway or Albertsons. Fortunately for me, the greater Seattle area is brimming with Natural Foods markets, who offer everything needed for this recipe. So after thawing the halibut and a brief trip to PCC, I was good go.

Coconut Fish Sticks
1 1/2 to 2 pounds skinless halibut, cut into sticks
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
5-6 tablespoons water
1 tsp Thai Kitchen red curry paste
1 tsp herbamare (a special herbed sea salt)
2 cups shredded unsweetend coconut
Coconut oil for cooking
Peanut Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup creamy organic peanut butter
1/2 cup water (use more if needed)
2 - 3 tablespoons lime juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp Thai Kitchenred curry paste
1 tsp herbamare

• Rinse the halibut and cut it into "stick" size pieces, set aside. Whisk rice flour, water, curry paste, and herbamare. Place fish in mixture and thoroughly coat.


• While your skillet is heating, place the fish into the rice flour/water mixture and coat evenly. Then add the shredded coconut and mix it with the fish to coat, using your hands to press the coconut into the fish sticks.


• Add abut 3 to 4 tablespoons of coconut oil to your skillet. Make sure the oil spreads out quickly. This means your pan is hot enough. Add the fish sticks, I do mine in two batches (adding more oil in between). Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Use tongs to flip them. You may need to cook yours shorter or longer depending on the thickness of the fish. The fish sticks will continue to cook after you remove them from the pan. You can check for doneness by breaking apart the thickest stick with a fork.


• To make the peanut dipping sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Add more water to desired consistency. Add sea salt or Herbamare to taste.

Source: www.NourishingMeals.com