Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world, at only 8 square miles. It's a super tiny island in Oceania, northeast of Australia. Because of its small size, there's not a whole lot that's grown on the island. The main sources of nutrients are seafood and coconut...which is unfortunate for someone who doesn't eat seafood! However, I was able to "filet" some tofu and it worked out pretty well.
After pressing a bit of the water out of a block of extra firm tofu, I cut it into filet-sized and -shaped pieces.
Since I knew the tofu itself wouldn't have much flavor, I decided to marinate it in some lime juice and soy sauce.
While the tofu marinated, I mixed together some flaked coconut and breadcrumbs and scrambled some egg for the breading.
The tofu went into the eggs first, then rolled in the bread crumb-coconut mixture.
And then placed into a pan of hot oil to fry a few minutes on each side. The recipe I used called for coconut oil but since I didn't have any I used regular vegetable oil mixed with a bit of sesame oil.
While my "filets" fried up, I sliced some limes for the topping. Coconut and lime is such a great combination.
Since the coconut crusted "fish" was the only recipe I could really find for Nauru, I accompanied it with some non-traditional sides just based on what I had on hand: turmeric-ginger rice and lima beans.
The tofu didn't really taste like fish, but I didn't expect it to. The biggest thing was to make sure I used something with a firm enough texture to fry without falling apart completely. I think it turned out well; if I can find a way to make a non-fried tofu coated in coconut, I would definitely eat it more often. Hard to believe that I used to not like coconut! I'm still not a fan of unsweetened coconut in things that are meant to be sweet, but I'm definitely a fan of it in savory things now!
Recipes Used: Coconut Crusted Tofu (Fish)
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