Whenever we have guests, I enjoy cooking them fish. Since Tracy and Sandy like fish, I decided to cook up some blackened Pompano paired with coconut rice and peas. 

I started off by making the blackened seasoning, compliments of Captain Paul Sperco’s wife, with a twist of my own. I like some heat to my meals so used my jalapeno salt in place of the salt and Franks Red-Hot powder in place of ground black pepper. 

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh fish filets
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I use avocado oil)
• 1 lemon

Blackened Mix

• 1 ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme (I use 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning as a substitute for the thyme and oregano)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper 
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar

Instructions

1. Combine all the blackened mix in a small bowl
2. Pat filets dry. Season filets with blackened mix on both sides.
3. Place in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add butter and oil. When the butter and oil are nice and hot, add the seasoned fish skin up. Cook, undisturbed, for several minutes. The filet should be golden brown before you flip it. Once you flip the fish over, continue to cook until opaque and completely cooked through. 
4. Squeeze lemon juice over the fish and serve.

Tania cooks the rice in our rice cooker and substitutes water for coconut water (do not use coconut milks as it will caramelizes and make rice pudding). We use Goya brand coconut water, and we strain out the coconut chunks as if you don’t, they don’t get soft when you cook it. Since our guests enjoyed the meal, I thought I would share with you all. 

If you try this let me know how you liked it.