Squash and Tilapia Cooked in Coconut Milk

I talked to Mama a week ago  and I am feeling homesick.  Whenever I am feeling that way, I turn to food that reminds me of home, remind me of my family.  Squash is one vegetable that is very  affordable from where I grew up.  My Mother used to cook this for us when we were kids  with  crabs or other seafood and it was always a hit.  Having said that, I  bought an acorn squash from the store  a couple of days ago so I can cook it the way Mama used to.

 I only picked the smallest one because I wasn't sure if my lovelies would eat it with me.  Since I don't have crabs, I used the frozen tilapia I have to cook with it.  Below is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Small size of  acorn or any kind of squash
• 1 medium sized tomatoes, sliced
• a small size of ginger root
• 1 piece of  lemon grass
• 1/2  onion
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 5 frozen tilapia fillets
• salt and pepper to taste
• a dash of cumin
• scallion
• 1 teaspoon of  crushed chili peper

 Procedure:

• Cut the squash in half.  Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and other soft tissue of the squash.  Peel the skin and slice them up into desired sizes,.  I usually slice it 1/2 thick.

•  Open the can of coconut milk and pour it in the pan.
• Add the onion, tomatoes, ginger, lemon grass, salt and pepper.  
• Let the coconut boil then add the tilapia.  Let it cook for about 7 minutes then  remove  the tilapia from the  pan so that  when you  put the squash, the fish won't  break into pieces.
• Cook the squash until it is tender, usually about 15 minutes or so depending on how thik you cut the  them.

 You can serve  it with steamed rice.  put some of the juice from the pan on top of the tilapia when you do the plating.

 Sprinkle the  scallions on top.

 My kids love  just about any kind of fish and this is the first time I cook it that way and glad that they liked it.  They are not sure about the squash as this is the first time I cook it with coconut milk.  I usually sautee the squash with some  sardines and they like it that way.

 When I cook with fish, I always make sure to add ginger or lemon juice to   somehow eliminate the fishy taste and it works great.  It also add another level of the flavor to the dish.

The lemon grass is just something that I love to use when cooking with coconut milk.  It is so good especially when you cook  chicken.  The smell is  just special.  BY the way, our rice looks greenish because I flavored it with pandan.