Fried Tilapia with Spinach

I love to cook but there are days when I am lazy to spend to much time in the kitchen preparing meals.  Yesterday was one of those days.  While contemplating on what to cook, while watching TV (flicking channels) I came across Quickfire, a cooking show in local Channel 11.  Chef Rosebud had a guest mom who used to live in Brunei.  She loves cooking for her kids and one of the dishes she prepares for them is the fried tilapia in chili garlic bok choy (or something).  

That's where I got the inspiration to this dish.  Since I am lazy (that day), I don't want to go to the nearest supermarket to buy all the ingredients (from the original recipe) so I thought of improvising it and use whatever is available from the local market  (which is about 150 steps from where I live) and create my own recipe.

Here's how I did my own version.  Thanks to Quickfire for the inspiration.

fried tilapia in a bed of spinach

Ingredients

4 tilapia fillets - you can ask your local fish vendor to do this for you

salt

pepper

flour (for coating)

oil for deep frying

6 cups (approx) spinach leaves, washed

3 Tbsp oyster sauce

2 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp toasted garlic (you can use store-bought or you can make your own)

Procedure

1.  season your fish fillets with salt and pepper

2.  coat/dredge each fillet with flour

3.  in a wok or deep fryer, heat oil until almost smoking 

4.  deep fry each fillet until golden brown.  Drain and set aside. 

5.  In a sauteing pan, under low fire, heat oyster sauce and water and 1 Tbsp toasted garlic.  Simmer for 1 minute.

6.  Add spinach leaves, constantly turning them over using a tong until wilted. Careful not to over cook the leaves.  Turn off heat.

7.  Serve fried tilapia in a bed of spinach top with the toasted garlic.

Serves 2

Preparation Time : 10 minutes