My daughter and I love tilapia. When we lived in Northeast Thailand, we always bought fresh tilapia to cook.  However, the tilapia there was not as big as tilapia sold in the U.S.A. Fresh fish in Thailand is very delicious, but in this recipe I used frozen tilapia with my own sauce. Even though the Tilapia is frozen, it is delightful meal.

INGREDIENTS FOR FRYING:

1 each tilapia (whole with head on)
3 tbsp. fish fry mix
½ cup water
½ cup olive oil
½ cup basil leaves
¼ cup ginger (sliced into 2 inch lengths)
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
3 each dried chili peppers
1 leaf romaine lettuce

PREPARATION: FOR FRYING:

1. Clean the tilapia and make multiple diagonal slices on both sides of the fish, then coat the rice vinegar onto the fish.
2. Mix the water with the fish fry mix and coat both sides of the fish with the mixture.
3. Heat the olive oil in a wok using a medium heat setting, then fry the fish for a total of a few minutes until crispy, turning it over to cook it evenly on both sides.
4. Place the tilapia onto a serving platter, on top of a romaine lettuce leaf.
5. After allowing the wok to cool for a few minutes, remove 3 tbsp. of the olive oil from the wok and set aside to use for making the sauce.
6. Heat the same wok again with the remaining olive oil, add the basil and fry until crispy, then remove and set it aside.
7. Add the ginger to the wok and fry until crispy. Remove the ginger and set it aside.
8. Add the dried chili peppers to the wok and fry until crispy. Remove the chili peppers and set aside.

INGREDIENTS FOR SAUCE:

3 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. palm sugar
2 tbsp. garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp. shallot (chopped)
1/3 cup water
½ tbsp. corn starch
1 pinch salt
1 pinch black pepper
2 tbsp. sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp. fish sauce
¼ cup coriander leaves
3 tbsp. olive oil (removed from the wok used for frying the tilapia)

PREPARATION FOR SAUCE

1. Place the chopped garlic, chopped shallot, sweet chili sauce, black pepper, fish sauce, palm sugar and salt into a small bowl and mix well.
2. Separately, mix the cornstarch with the water and set aside.
3. Using the olive oil left over from stir fried fish, heat in a small pot using a medium heat setting. Then, add the contents or the bowl and fry, stirring constantly for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the coriander leaves and continue stir frying for 1 more minute and turn off the heat.
4. Pour the sauce over the tilapia and garnish with crispy basil leaves, crispy ginger and crispy dried chili.

Makes 3 servings