Pecan Crusted Tilapia

Tilapia is the kind of fish that takes other flavors very easily. It's so mild that if you cook it with anything else, the texture is really the only thing that remains to remind you're eating fish - the fish taste simply vanishes. We've done a really nice meal before with tilapia - cajun seasoning on the fish with red and green peppers and tomatoes - and I decided to give this recipe a try recently. I bought this bag of frozen tilapia fillets from Target (their Market Pantry brand) and when we had one before, the Husband said it tasted a little too fishy for tilapia. So I made this recipe when he worked late that night and figured I could make it again for him if it worked out. I will say that it didn't work out, but it wasn't just one thing - it was a combination of problems.

Pecan Crusted Tilapia

Serves: 4
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 8 minutes

½ C pecan halves
4 (6 oz) fresh tilapia fillets
1 t salt
½ t garlic powder
¼ t pepper
3 T butter

1. Process pecans in a food processor until finely chopped. Sprinkle fish with salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Dredge fish in finely chopped pecans.

2. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add fish, and cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until well browned and fish flakes with a fork.

I defrosted the tilapia overnight and it was ready to go. That's where a crucial step was left out of the recipe directions - pat the fish dry first. I really think this omission was the beginning of the end. I ground the pecans in my little food processor and spread them on a paper plate, seasoned the fish as directed, and then plopped the fish down on the plate to 'dredge' it in the chopped pecans. What started happening immediately is that the chopped pecans, finely chopped mind you, started to clump together and didn't want to adhere evenly to the fish. Then when I tried to spread them around to cover more of the fillet, they clumped more and started sticking to my fingers like dough. Ugh. I think patting the fish dry would have helped, but part of me thought the pecans might have been too fatty to use for this recipe. On the other hand, the Husband and I had a wonderful pecan-crusted trout at a fantastic tapas bar in Asheville, NC, a few years back and it was fantastic. So I know it can be done, but it just didn't want to work out for me.





I managed to get one piece semi-dredged in the chopped pecans, but by that point I had used up almost all of them up. I didn't want to chop more and waste them, so I applied the rest of the nuts to the other fish fillet as best I could, and put them in the pan. Here's where my next crucial error took place - I used too much butter in the pan. If the fish and nuts weren't soggy to begin with, they certainly were now. I also heated the pan too soon, so I had to remove the pan from the eye about 20 seconds before the fish were completely dredged and ready, as the butter had already started to smoke a little bit. I added more to compensate, but it was too much all together. At this point I was faced with one tilapia fillet with too many nuts in an uneven covering, one fillet with not nearly enough nuts, and too much butter in the pan. I was a hot mess.




After I felt the fish had cooked enough, which was a good bit longer than the 3-4 minutes suggested in the recipe, I removed them to a plate for inspection. The nuts hadn't really browned and they still weren't adhering very well. The one sad fillet with minimal nuts had pretty much lost the few survivors in the pan with the overabundance of butter, so he was naked. I covered him up with the other fillet. The taste was really underwhelming. Sure enough, the tilapia taste was pretty much nil, save for the nuts and salt, pepper and garlic powder, of which I could have added much more. The nuts were soggy and didn't have any crunch to them and the tilapia really did taste kind of fishy. I ate most of the two fillets I cooked to avoid throwing away my entire dinner, but I couldn't choke it all down. Even if I were to fix a few of my errors, I don't think I would cook this again.

Grilled Tuna with Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Man, talk about a summer recipe. Everything about this dish screams sun and outdoors grilling and skimpy bikinis. The Husband especially screams about that last part.

Grilled Tuna with Tomato and Cucumber Salad

TOTAL TIME: 25 MIN SERVINGS: 4

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 pounds tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 large cucumber—peeled, seeded and sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup torn basil leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon hot water
Four 6-ounce tuna steaks
2 teaspoons dried oregano

Directions:

Light a grill. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil with the red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes, scallions, cucumber, red onion and basil and toss to coat. Refrigerate the salad. In a small bowl, whisk the mustard with the balsamic vinegar and blend in the hot water. Season with salt and pepper. Brush the tuna steaks with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and the oregano. Grill the tuna over a hot fire until lightly charred on the outside and rare inside, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a carving board. Mound the tomato salad on plates. Thickly slice the tuna steaks and transfer to the plates. Drizzle the tuna with the balsamic dressing and serve.

And in addition to this being really good, it's pretty healthy, which is a key factor in what we've been eating lately. We got the tuna steaks frozen at Target and the directions on the package tell you everything you need to know about cooking them. Fish isn't scary, it's tasty! Embrace the fish, people. The thing about tuna, however, is that it's best cooked rare to medium-rare. So far, we have been mostly unsuccessful in getting the fish to that level. We always overcook, and part of it is that I always say, "That looks a little too raw for me in the middle; why don't you cook it for about another two minutes," and then when it comes off the grill it's always cooked all the way through. I've got to remedy that. And tuna steaks do not taste anything like tuna from a can. It's completely different and if done right, not nearly as fishy. Good fish shouldn't taste overly fishy anyway.

The tomato salad in the recipe would be good as a side item all by itself. Paired with the fish it just really completes the whole recipe. I halved the recipe for the salad and only cut two slices of onion to chop up. A whole onion is a lot for this recipe, and we're not huge onion people. I believe I used the full amount of mustard-balsamic glaze to go on top of the fish and it wasn't too strong, but you do have to be careful so as not to completely cover up the taste of the fish all together.

This just really came out well. We would definitely have this again!

Mediterranean Salmon

It's always nice to throw some fish into the mix. It's a good, light meal that usually doesn't require much prep, and even though it seems expensive at the checkout line it much less expensive than what you'd pay for a comparable meal in a restaurant. Target even has some good frozen fish - ahi tuna, mahi mahi and salmon come to mind.

Mediterranean Salmon

Prep: 20 min.
Bake: 20 min. If your sun-dried tomatoes are packed in oil, be sure to drain and
pat dry with a paper towel before using.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
4 (6-oz.) salmon fillets
3/4 teaspoon lemon pepper

3/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes

1 (2.25-oz.) can sliced ripe black olives, drained

2 ounces reduced-fat crumbled feta cheese with basil and tomatoes

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1. Place each salmon fillet on a 16- x 12-inch piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Sprinkle fillets evenly with lemon pepper, dill, and salt. Top fillets evenly with tomatoes and next 3 ingredients. Fold long sides of foil over fillets; roll up short sides of foil to seal. Place foil packets, seam sides up, on a baking sheet.

2. Bake at 400° for 18 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

This was incredibly easy to put together. Put the fish on some aluminum foil, throw ingredients on it, fold it up and stick it in the oven. Easy as that. Minimal cleanup. Pretty doggone good.

Raw fish ready to go in the oven. The Husband likes olives; I don't

Packed up in foil

Finished product. Yumm-o.