First off, sorry about the so-so picture. I forgot my camera at work today and the phone on my Pre is decent, but not good for close-ups. Second… this fish turned out soooo much better than I even hoped it would. And third, yea… another recipe. What can I say… after being out of town for a week I’ve been hankering to get back in the kitchen!
I’ve seen a few recipes for nut-crusted fish, typically they involve slathering the fish with mayo, piling on the nuts and baking. That’s basically what I did here, but I got both conservative, and creative. Instead of the usual pecans or walnuts, I went for the pumpkin seeds. Make sure you get them out of the shell though. You could likely do this with just bout any nut you want… I may try pistachio’s next.
For a half-pound of fish you’ll need about 1/4 cup of your nuts or seeds, and use a food processor or Magic Bullet type blender and chop them to a coarse meal consistency. You want some chunks in there!
For the fish, I went with a northern fillet, good fish, Canadian wild caught. Just watch out for the bones. This should work with any fairly flaky, white fish like tilapia, cod, even cat fish. Heated up the oven to 350 degrees and lightly sprayed a baking dish with some olive oil flavored cooking spray. If you’re using frozen fish, make sure it’s fully thawed and dried off.
Then I took the fish and spread about 1.5-2 teaspoons of (fat-free of course) mayo on it and then seasoned with some fresh ground black pepper, a bit of salt and some granulated garlic. You can mix this up to suit your own tastes… try lemon pepper, or maybe some dill.
Next spread half the ground nuts/seeds over the fish, patting it in to the mayo to get it to stick a bit. Put the fish in the prepared pan, that covered side down and repeat the process with the other side.
Pop it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. This is going to vary depending on the thickness of the fish you used. If it’s a really thin fillet, it may even cook in as little as 15… so check it. It’s done with it flakes apart easily if you poke a fork in to it.
I served this with some srhooms and onions (I just chopped them, lightly covered with olive oil and seasoned with garlic and cayenne pepper, cooked in the oven for about 12-15 minutes) and a side salad with a home made, steak-sauce salad dressing.
This whole meal can be prepped up in about 10 minutes than make the salad while the fish and veges are cooking. Supper simple. Throw some bell pepper chunks in with the shrooms and onions if you want a splash of color (and flavor).
Hi Rob,
I met you in LV. I was doing the serving for Cari’s booth. (Dave’s wife) I have made this Pumpkin seed crusted fish 3 times already and it is Yummy!!! Last night Cari and Juan came over and we had a feast! I do the mayo and add the seasons into the mayo so it is like a paste, it make is easy. I have used Talapia and White Roughy, both good. Thanks for a new way to make our fish!!!!
kewl! I’m probably going to try this later this week again, but with maybe.. walnuts or maybe cashews since that’s what i have on hand right now… and going to season the mayo. Cari asked about using yogurt instead, maybe I’ll try that… we’ll see.
OMG. OMG. OMG. Fishgasm indeed. Made this Saturday night (thought it couldn’t get any better); had leftovers yesterday (still phenomenal — how can that be? Day old fish?) Had it for lunch today — OMG. I used to HATE FISH, but I did this with White Roughy and I think I died and went to heaven. Thrice! Thanks for the recipe! :-*