Thursday 29 March 2012

Tilapia with Efo

Oh food, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways ;)



Okay seriously, I have a bit of a sore throat and I'm a little tired so I needed to make something easy, yummy and hot (I promise I'm talking about food here!).

Before I go into the recipe, I have to say I try to make preparations for my meals in advance. Even if I don't know exactly what I'm making yet.


E.g. I bought 2 bunches of spinach and some tilapia on Monday. By Tuesday, I knew I wanted to cook the tilapia on Wednesday so... I washed, picked and chopped the spinach and stored it in the fridge. I cleaned/washed the fish and seasoned it. Again I stored it in the fridge. When I woke up feeling a little rough, I knew exactly what I was going to cook and as most of the preparation was already done, it didn't take long to cook AT ALL.




Ingredients
2 x Whole Tilapia (sliced)
1 Onion
1 cup of Passata
2 tbsp Coconut Oil
2 x Spinach Bunches
Seasonings - Ginger, Parsley, Mixed Herbs and Salt
Chilli

Tilapia with Efo
  1. Wash and chop the spinach.
  2. Clean/Wash the Tilapia and season (salt, ginger and parsley).
  3. Chop the onion
  4. Add the oil to a pot and allow it heat up. Add the onions.
  5. Once onions are nicely caramelised, add the passata and reduce heat to medium. Season with salt and herbs. Cook for 5 minutes.
  6. Add the spinach and stir contents of pot together.
  7. Add the fish almost immediately, I always add my fish flat (to make sure one entire side of each piece is flat on the surface of the pot or stew)
  8. Cover pot and leave to cook for 15 minutes (maximum).
  9. Serve and Enjoy :)
YUM!

Serving Suggestions
  • You can eat it on its own, which is what I did.
  • With baked sweet potatoes, which is what I'm doing tomorrow ;)
  • Boiled or Pan Fried Plantain
  • 1-2 (1/2 inch) slices of yam
  • The list goes on and on and on

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the word 'caramelised' :). I just ate this at my mums, yummy!

Ibukun

Anonymous said...

Adura, where do you buy your fish if I may ask?

Adura O. said...

@Ibukun, I JUST love tilapia :)

@Anon I buy my fish in Wood Green or Walthamstow. I used to buy it in finsbury Park... sometimes I buy frozen pre-cut tilapia. It's cheaper but doesn't taste as fresh.

mimi said...

This looks nice, do you know any substitute for coconut oil? as i don't have that.
thanks

Adura O. said...

Hi Mimi,

Are you in Nigeria?
You can use a similar amount of palm oil :)