A healthy and easy recipe for white fish coated in coconut and homemade breadcrumbs with stuffed red pepper and Asian-style stir fry veg

Here in the UK, we’re currently in week 3 of the Coronavirus lockdown and with that comes some good news and some bad news. The bad news is, it’s not as easy to slip out to the shop and grab a few ingredients when you fancy it. The good news is though, it is definitely encouraging me to be a bit more experimental and resourceful with what we’ve been eating.

I had some desiccated coconut, the remainder of a loaf of bread, some vegetables that needed using up, a block of feta in the fridge and a couple of fresh fish fillets we’d been looking forward to eating et voila – coconut crusted cod with feta stuffed pepper and stir fry veggies. Again, as I did with my sweet potato rendang soup, I packed in plenty of garlic and ginger for an immune system boost and a combination of fish and feta to up our protein and omega3.

Healthy, simple and easily adapted to suit the things you might have in your fridge, freezer or cupboards.

(Serves 2)

For the fish:

2 fillets of skinless fresh white fish (I used cod)
3 pieces of half toasted bread (or shop bought breadcrumbs – I ain’t here to judge)
1 cup of desiccated coconut
Tbsp honey (melted)
Juice of half a lime
1 whole egg
Chilli flakes (optional)

For the stuffed pepper:

2 of those long, sweet peppers that I don’t know the name of
Cup of crumbled feta cheese
Olive oil

For the Asian-style vegetables:

Whatever vegetables you’ve got lying around – I had green beans and babycorn
A clove of garlic – minced
A small squeeze of lazy ginger or a half thumb of fresh grated ginger
Half tsp turmeric
Tbsp soy sauce
Cracked black pepper
Stir fry/sesame oil (olive oil will do if not)

Here’s what you gotta do…

Preheat your oven to 180-200° (fan)
Steam the 2 whole peppers in boiling water for about 5-7 minutes (or until they start to go soft).
Scoop the peppers out of the water and set aside on a plate to cool for a few minutes.
While the peppers cool, tear your toasted bread up and blitz in a blender or food processor until they form crumbs.
Pour the crumbs into a wide bowl with a cup of desiccated coconut and half a tsp of chilli flakes (or leave the chilli out) and combine with a fork.
In another wide bowl, pour in your melted honey, lime juice and egg then beat together until mixed well.
Return to your peppers – chop off the tops, slit them down the middle and scoop out the seeds then stuff each pepper with the crumbled feta cheese and lay on a baking tray.
Coat with olive oil before putting on the middle shelf of the oven to roast for about 35-40 minutes in total.
While the peppers start to roast, coat each fillet of fish well in the egg mixture (this will help the breadcrumbs stick) and then generously coat in the coconut crumb mixture, like really pack it on.
Transfer to another baking tray and sprinkle plenty more of the coconut breadcrumbs over the top.
Place into the oven on the bottom shelf (so the coconut doesn’t catch as the fish cooks) and let it do its thing for about 25-30 minutes depending on the size of the fillets – mine were quite large.
While the peppers and fish cook, steam your chosen vegetables in the same water you used for the peppers earlier until they’re just blanched then transfer to a frying pan of hot sesame/stir fry oil.
Leave the vegetables to sweat and sizzle on medium heat for about 5 minutes before chucking in your minced garlic, ginger, turmeric, soy sauce and black pepper then leave them to fry for about another 5 minutes.
While your veggies finish off, move your peppers up to the top shelf of the oven so they can blister a bit more before serving and move your fish up to the middle shelf for the coconut to go all golden and toasty.
Once everything’s done, serve straight away and enjoy!