Tag: tilapia

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Date Night Eat

Date Night Dinner: Tilapia, Roasted Greek Potatoes and Grilled Asparagus

This evening was a particularly nice spring evening and we kicked off the date night dinner with an appetizer of fried oysters, followed by a wine walk around the neighborhood (so we would’t feel guilty!) before settling in for the main course.  The nice thing about this menu is that all the work is up front on the appetizer.  The main course requires very little prep, just timing.  Main thing is to cut up the potatoes before even starting on the appetizer and pre-heating the oven while making the oysters.  I’m all about efficiency, particularly on a date night, so we can maximize the enjoyment part and minimize the food prep part.

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Basic Pan-Seared Tilapia

Making a pan-seared tilapia is really easy.  The hardest part is deciding what kind of seasoning or sauce you’d like to have on the fillets, but with fresh tilapia, they’re good even with just salt, pepper and freshly squeezed lemon juice.  This recipe is really just to instruct on the cooking method for pan searing the fillets.

Ingredients

  • 1-2 fillets per person
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Seasoning of your choice (I like Cavendar’s)
  • Lemon for searing and garnish

Directions

  1. Pat fish dry with a paper towel.
  2. Sprinkle fish with salt & pepper and seasoning
  3. Heat 1 Tbsp Olive Oil and 1 Tbsp Butter in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Allow the skillet time to get hot.
  4. Sauté the fillets for about 3-4 minutes (depending on thickness) on each side, squeezing lemon juice on them during cooking.  Tilapia should be lightly golden and just cooked through.  Use a fish spatula (larger, thin & slotted) to turn the fillets without tearing them up.
  5. Transfer to the plate and serve warm with lemon wedges
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Eat

Another Great Tilapia Recipe

With spring upon us, I’ve been turning my date night meal thoughts to seafood.  For me, the lighter fare seems to fit with the growing southern heat, instead of the heavy dishes I tend to gravitate towards in the fall and winter.  Also, I’m really trying to adjust my diet so that it’s more heavily weighted toward something healthier.  And when I find something that’s both tasty & reasonably healthy, I’m totally stoked since I get that gourmet meal feeling without the guilt of loading up on calories.

I also recently acquired an old counter-top electric grill and I’ve been wanting a good excuse to try it out.  So tonight, fish is back on the menu, specifically tilapia.  Easy to find, versatile, not fishy & relatively inexpensive is a combination that’s hard to beat.  We’re pairing the tilapia with asparagus and for dessert a bistro style dish of roasted pears and blackberries served with Greek yogurt.  Part of this meal is a slight variation of a Bobby Flay recipe and the other I ran across in Bon Appétit, served with my own twist.

Tonight’s Menu

Entreé: Grilled Tilapia with Lemon Butter and Capers, served over a bed of Orzo
Side Dish: Grilled Asparagus with Caper Vinaigrette
Beverage: with Savignon Blanc and, of course, La Croix sparkling water
Dessert: Roasted Pears & Berries, served with Greek Yogurt

The Flow

There are a couple “make in advance” parts to this recipe (my make in advance means before diner while Laree’s getting the kids to bed):  the lemon butter and the vinaigrette.  You’ll probably want to start with the lemon butter since it will need to spend some time on the stove.

You’ll also need a dessert strategy for this meal.  Since this is something you’re going to want to serve hot, you’ll need to decide if you want dessert cooking while you’re eating or if you want to wait and cook this after dinner.  It takes about an hour, mostly cooking time in the oven, so plan accordingly.

This is one of those meals in which there’s a lot going on even though it goes pretty fast, so it really helps to do some ingredient prep up front.  In preparation for cooking, take a stick of unsalted butter and cut it up and leave it out to warm to room temperature.  Go ahead and wash 4 tilapia fillets and pat dry and lay them out in a casserole dish or on a plate big enough to hold them.  Put that out of the way or in the fridge.  Chop up 1/4 cup of fresh parsley leaves as fine as you like & set aside.  This will get mixed in with the orzo for a nice contrast.   Drain 1/2 cup capers and set aside in a ramekin.  Drain another 2 tablespoons of them for the vinaigrette.  Trim enough asparagus for the meal and lay it out on a plate or something that you can pour oil over.  It’s really good so err on the generous side.  Organize your other ingredients.

Zest 1 lemon (I managed about a tablespoon and a half), juice it and one other and chop up a small shallot and combine, along with 1/2 cup white wine (I used the same Savignon we were drinking) in a saucepan cook over high heat until it’s reduced to about half.  Bring it to a medium boil since the highest heat will cause the liquid to froth up and you’ll have lemon zest all over the sides of your saucepan.

While that’s cooking whisk up the vinaigrette by taking 3 Tbs of white wine vinegar, 2 Tsp of Dijon mustard, 1/2 Tsp salt, 1/4 Tsp of (preferrably fresh ground) black pepper in a small bowl, then add 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it’s well mixed and stir in 2 tablespoons of drained capers.  Mix it up real good 🙂 and put the bowl in the fridge to chill.

If the lemon juice & wine mixture hasn’t reduced yet, go ahead and get a larger pot ready to boil the orzo.  If it has, take the saucepan off of the burner to let it cool.  10-15 minutes is fine. Then whisk together a couple tablespoons of heavy cream, the stick of butter and the wine mixture in a small bowl and season with salt & pepper.  Be careful, it splashes if you’re stirring it with a whisk.  Then stick it in the freezer to chill quickly.  Make sure the pot for the orzo is on and heating up and cook the orzo as soon as the water is ready.

Heat the grill to high heat.  I’m assuming you’re using a non-stick grill, but if not or if you’re grilling outside on a BBQ, you’ll want a fish basket for this so your fillets don’t tear up.  Brush the fish on both sides with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Toss the asparagus with the canola oil and season with salt & pepper.  Get the vinaigrette out of the fridge, make sure the colander is close at hand for the orzo, get the lemon butter out of the freezer so it can start to warm back up & get plates ready…

We’re going to go quickly from grill to plate.  When the orzo is cooked al dente (about 8 minutes), drain and toss with 3-4 tablespoons of the lemon butter, the parsley and some salt & pepper.  Grill the tilapia fillets 3-4 minutes on each side until they have a nice char pattern or are lightly golden.  Also, grill the asparagus until tender.  It will probably take about as long as the fish.  Plate the meal by making a bed of the orzo and placing the fillets on top.  Top each fillet with some of the lemon butter and some capers.  Serve the asparagus drizzled with the vinaigrette and scoop some capers over as well (they tend to sink to the bottom).  Serve with the beverage of your choice.  I suggest a sparkling water & glass of savignon blanc.

Dessert

The original recipe for this is from the March 2011 Bon Appétit, but I modified it a bit since I liked the concept, but not the actual recipe in the magazine.

Mix the sugar and the vanilla extract until well combined.  You can do this with a bowl and a fork.  Pre-heat the oven to 425°F.  Generously butter a baking sheet or cake pan.  Toss the pears, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the vanilla butter in a bowl or ziploc bag until well coated.  Place pears, 1 cut side down, in the baking dish & roast for 20 minutes.  Turn pears to the other side down, sprinkle with 2 more tablespoons and roast another 20 minutes.  Turn pears skin side down, sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar and broil until they begin to caramelize.  Toss berries with 2 tablespoons sugar, arrange around pears and broil until berries begin to release their juice.

Server pears and berries, with juices, and top with dollop of Greek yogurt.

The Ingredients

Tilapia

Tilapia – 4 fillets, usually about 1-2 lbs
Lemons – 2, zest one of them and juice both of them
Parsley leaves – 1/4 cup
shallot – 1, small, finely chopped
White wine – 1/2 cup
Splash of heavy cream or Half & Half
Butter – 1 stick, unsalted
Olive oil – 3 tablespoons
Capers – 1/4 cup, drained
Orzo – 1/2 lb
Salt & Pepper (preferably freshly ground)

Asparagus

Asparagus – enough to eat, try 1 lb
Olive Oil – 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
Canola Oil – enough to toss asparagus, try 2 tablespoons
Capers – 2 tablespoons, drained
White Wine Vinegar – 3 tablespoons
Dijon mustard – 2 teaspoons
Salt & Pepper (preferably freshly ground)

Dessert

1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
2 Bosc pears, quartered and cored
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
A handful of frozen berries (Blackberries, Blueberries & Raspberries is common)
Plain Greek Yogurt

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Eat

A Post Holiday Date Night Dinner

After eating so heavy throughout the holidays, I’m always ready to try some lighter fare in January and this weekend we’re back to seafood.  We had a pretty busy Saturday so that meant by the time we got around to talking about dinner, it was after 4:00 in the afternoon and I went for my “go to” meal of tilapia.  I’m calling the entree Pan-Seared Panko Tilapia.  We often have grits as a side dish for seafood, but I’ve been itching to try my hand at a soufflé, so I attempted a Pepper Jack Cheese Grits Soufflé and then added an Arugula Salad.

I’ve been on this appetizer kick for a little while so I wanted something that was light but had a little kick to it.  As I wandered around the grocery store, I thought some bruschetta would be just the thing, so I cobbled together some stuff to make a Spicy Shrimp & Arugula Bruschetta.

Appetizer: Shrimp & Arugula Bruschetta

This is one that I totally made up while walking around the grocery store.  It has a southwestern flare to it and a bit of a kick.

  • 1 Baguette or some french bread
  • Some Olive Oil
  • Enough shrimp for 2 people preferably peeled and deveined (I used 1/4 pound and it was just about right… remember, this is an appetizer.  If you go with the french bread over the baguette, you’ll need a little more of just about everything since the slices are bigger.)
  • About 1/2 can Lime & Cilantro Ro*Tel (yep, right out of the can, drained)
  • A handful of Arugula (slightly chopped)
  • Salt & Pepper (preferably course kosher salt & freshly ground pepper)
  • Some white wine

I prepared the bruschetta before even thinking about getting the main dinner together.  I’ve started doing this with the appetizer so we could decompress from the “getting the kids down” ritual and take the edge off our appetite.  Especially since I knew this evening it would take a little while to cook the main course.  Not to mention it’s better not to drink the wine on an empty stomach if I want dinner to turn out decent!

Slice the baguette diagonally into about 8-10 pieces or however many you think you’re going to eat for the appetizer.  Brush each piece with olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet.  We’re going to bake these at 350° until just before they turn brown (keep an eye on them!).  The olive oil forms a kind of protective coating so the juices of the topping don’t get them soggy.

In a small frying pan, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil and saute the shrimp (peeled and deveined) until pink.  Add a little kosher salt & pepper to the shrimp while sauteing.  Remove to a plate for a few minutes.  We’re going to add it back once we’ve cooked the other ingredients and we’re going to chop them up a little, so get a cutting board ready.  Add the drained Ro*Tel to the pan and swish it around a bit with the oil.  Pour in some white wine, around 1/4 cup, and let it reduce, stirring it around.  As it reduces but isn’t yet dry, add the shrimp back (chop it up a little into chunks if you haven’t already), and add the arugula (it should be coarsely chopped too).  Sometime while you’re doing this you’ll need to take the baguette slices out of the oven and set aside (keep a hot pad ready!).  Toss ingredients together until the arugula is slightly wilted, then remove from heat and spoon over the baguette slices.  Arrange them on some cool looking serving dish and serve with a white wine like a savignon blanc.

Main Dish: Pan Seared Tilapia with Pepper Jack Grits Soufflé

The Grits

First I’m going to prep the grits since they will bake for around 40-45 minutes.  This was a challenge for me since all the recipes I found for a similar souffle made a lot… usually calling for at least a cup of grits.  If you’ve never cooked grits before, that’s a ton of grits.  For my purposes, I’m cooking for two, so here’s my modified version.  You’ll probably need to play with it a little and it still makes too much.  I just threw the extra away.

Soufflés are basically made using egg yolks and egg whites to make the dish puffy and light.  So the basic process is to make the grits, add the flavoring of your choice (in this case pepper jack cheese flavor) then the beaten egg whites and bake until fluffy.  If it were always that simple…

  • 1/2 cup grits
  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • salt
  • 1/4 stick of butter
  • 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese (more or less to taste)
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • Dash of cayenne pepper (if desired)
  • Some 1 cup ramekins, greased (custard dishes will do, but ramekins look a lot better)

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Cook the grits per the package directions.  I used Quaker grits with the 2 serving directions and it was still too much.  Cook the grits until smooth.  Add butter, pepper jack cheese and egg yolks (and cayenne if desired).  Remove from heat and stir until smooth.  Let the grits cool while you prepare the eggs.    Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form but they are not dry.  After the grits have cooled for a few minutes, gently fold the egg whites in, but don’t mix too much.  Spoon grits mixture into the ramekins, place them on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes until puffy and golden brown on top.  Keep an eye on them, every oven is different.  This will probably make around 6 ramekins with grits left over.

The Fish

While the grits are baking, prepare the fish.  I’ve found that 4 fillets at the grocery store is fine for 2.  Sometimes we have a fillet left over and sometimes we don’t.  Tilapia is great because it’s a mild fish that most folks like and it’s also usually pretty cheap at the super market.  Smell it before you buy though.  Don’t be embarrassed to ask.  Trust me, you don’t want to eat fishy fish for your date night dinner.

  • 4 Tilapia fillets
  • Olive oil
  • Panko bread crumbs
  • White Cornmeal
  • Parmesan cheese (plain old grated Kraft will do just fine)
  • Cracked fresh pepper
  • Some buttermilk or a couple egg whites (whichever you happen to have on hand… this is for the wash to coat the fish)
  • Lemon slices (for the garnish)

You can bake or pan fry this dish, but tonight I pan seared it because I wanted to little more of a crunch to the fish.  I guess that kind of matched the appetizer and also is a sort of balance for the fluffy grits and the salad.

Wash the tilapia and pat it dry with paper towels.  When the grits have about 10-15 minutes, add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a frying pan and heat over medium to med-high heat.  Combine roughly equal parts of the panko bread crumbs and the cornmeal.  Probably 1/3 cup of each will do for 4 fillets, but you basically want to have enough to coat the fish.  Add about half as much grated Parmesan cheese along with enough cracked fresh pepper to where you can see the specks and mix it all up in a bowl or something that is big enough to make sure you can evenly coat the fillets.  I usually use a glass pie shell, which is convenient since it doesn’t take up too much space in the dishwasher.  Soak the tilapia fillets (I usually do 1 or 2 at a time) in either a bowl of buttermilk or beaten egg whites to coat thoroughly.  Dredge the fillets in the panko/cornmeal/Parmesan cheese mixture until evenly coated on both sides and pan sear for 3-4 minutes on each side or until the fish is thoroughly cooked.  The breading should be slightly golden brown and crispy.  Remove to a plate with a paper towel.  Sear remaining fillets.

The Salad

This salad is probably too simple.  Just some Arugula, some fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (you can use the stuff out of the shaker, but for presentation the fresh grated looks and tastes much better), and the salad dressing of your choice.  For this recipe I prefer Brianna’s Real French Vinaigrette (the one with the artichoke on the front), to me it’s the perfect compliment for the peppery arugula.

Then plate, serve and enjoy, again with that same Savignon Blanc if you have any left over after the appetizer and make it a Date Night!