Macadamia Crusted Tilapia with Strawberry Mango Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Jasmine Rice

Is that not the longest title for a recipe ever? To make it any shorter would have meant leaving out one of the big flavors of this dish. And there are a lot. It's like a tropical explosion, and you'll wish you were eating this somewhere close to crashing waves. That's where my mind drifted as I ate this at the coffee table, watching yet another episode of Burn Notice....a show that we've stuck with to the bitter end, but I'm not sure why. I'm getting tired of Michael Westen. He's starting to remind me of Horatio Caine circa a CSI Miami episode from 2007 (remember those great one-liners and how dramatic he was with his sunglasses?). But, we're sticking to our TV show series commitment - I guess so we'll have closure when it ends? These are real problems, as you can see.

On the flip side, I will not grow tired of this recipe any time soon. It was FAB. Keith loved it and devoured the leftovers the next day. It was also pretty easy to pull together and was really refreshing after a good workout. The salsa ingredients could be switched up based on what you have. You can't go wrong!

Macadamia Crusted Tilapia with Strawberry Mango Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Jasmine Rice
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Ingredients:
4 tilapia filets (about 6 ounces each)
1 cup macadamia nuts
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 can light coconut milk
1 lime, juiced
salt
1 cup jasmine rice

Salsa:
1 mango, diced
1/2 pineapple, diced
8-10 strawberries, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (optional - I used a little green onion instead as Keith doesn't like spice)

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 and 1/2 cups water (coconut water, if you have it), 1 cup jasmine rice and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-16 minutes until the liquid is mostly evaporated. remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork and serving.

Once the rice is going, cover a large jelly-roll pan with foil. Add an oven-safe cooling rack to the inside of the pan and spray with a little cooking spray (this is optional, but I've found it's the best way to cook things that are coated). Combine the nuts and panko in a food processor and pulse a few times. Pour the mixture into a shallow dish.

Pour the remaining half of the coconut milk into another shallow dish. Dip each tilapia filet into the coconut milk and then dredge in the nut mixture.  Place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the filets with a little salt and drizzle each with some of the fresh lime juice. Spray with more cooking spray and place in the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a light golden brown.

While the rice and fish are cooking, make the salsa by combining all ingredients.
Serve fish over rice and top with salsa.

Recipe adapted from eat-drink-love.