Showing posts with label Fish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fish. Show all posts

Almond Crusted Tilapia

Sunday, February 19, 2012 - 
On Sundays, I make our menu. With the help of hubs, we determine what we are craving and work from there. We always have at least one vegetarian and one seafood meal on the menu though. I really like to stick to this to ensure our diet (and menu) isn't redundant. If I can get away with it, I'll try to have two vegetarian meals to be part of it as well. It just really depends on what is going on that week to be honest!

It is a little difficult to always get seafood in the menu due to being land locked and on a budget. Unfortunately, our grocer doesn't always have the highest quality, so it is a hit or miss.We had some good tilapia this time around, which made me pretty excited. I'm a fan of the mild fish, and was looking forward to a good dinner. I decided I was going to pan fry the fish. I marinated it in some milk for a bit as I prepped the other ingredients. A well seasoned flour mix, an egg wash, and then a breading. I had some leftovers from the previous week I had to use up, including bread and parsley. I ended up pulsing the almonds with these two ingredients and breading the fish lightly with them. The bread was a little soft and took on the green from the parsley which made the dinner a fun, unexpected color.

 

I was doing all of this while roasting some sweet potatoes, Brussel sprouts, red onions, and parsnips. All were cut to the same size and roasted well together with a simple toss of olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. As they were wrapping up (and giving the house a great smell), I pan fried the fish in a little bit of olive oil so all finished at the same time. The dinner was delicious with as the fish had good texture and a fantastic crust with a side of satisfying, roasted vegetables.


Funny thing, as much as I plan our menu, I don't always plan specifics. This menu item was listed as "fish with roasted vegetables". That night, as much as it was planned, it is always fun to continue to incorporate the unexpected into a meal.

Quinoa & Black Bean Salad

Thursday, May 5, 2011 - 
I've had this in my back pocket for quite sometime (okay really, I just forgot to post it and found it sitting there...waiting patiently.)  With all of the mache we've received from our CSA, hubs and I made fish tacos the first time around.  And when hubs said he wanted fish tacos, I happily agreed and quickly thought how great a black bean side would be as an accompaniment.  Had some quinoa in the pantry and decided to mix up with the two ingredients.

I sauteed some finely chopped white onion with about 4 cloves of garlic.  Once the onions were translucent, I added about 3/4 cup of quinoa.  Then, some cumin and cayenne pepper to the mix.  One this was all mixed up, I added about 2 cups of vegetable stock and let it come to a boil.  Then, the simmering began.

I was thinking maybe 15 minutes for this, but the quinoa was just tough for some reason.  I don't cook with quinoa very often, so I may have had the texture wrong, but I knew that I wanted it to be cooked a bit more.  It was soaking up the liquid like a rock star, so I kept adding 1/4 cup here, a 1/4 cup there until it was the texture I was looking for.  This lasted for about 30 minutes total, but it wasn't a big deal because I started it much earlier than everything else.  I guess my mind knew something it wasn't really telling me during the cooking process.

Once it was a good texture, I added two cans of rinsed black beans and cooked until everything was hot.  Added some cilantro (what was left - so only about a tablespoon, though it could have had more) and wild chives.

It made a lot of salad, let me tell you.  Plus, it was extremely filling.  All good things in my book.  There was enough for me to make a meal out of it the next day.  And to jazz it up, I added the leftover grilled nectarine salsa we had from our fish tacos the next day - it was delicious (and just as filling!)

Fish Tacos with Mache & Grilled Nectarine Salsa

Saturday, April 16, 2011 - 
With our first CSA in hand, hubs had decided to make some fish tacos using our chives, mache and cilantro.  I was pleasantly surprised by this as he usually doesn't enjoy fish tacos, but I adore them.  We bought a large trout filet at the grocery and took it home for some corn tortilla tacos.

Hubs prepped all of the ingredients, so really, I just mixed and seasoned while he was grilling the nectarines I needed for the salsa.  We had about half a cup each of red onions and green bell peppers, a few tablespoons of mache and a few tablespoons of cilantro.  Mache is a mild, lettuce like ingredient.  I've also heard it called lamb lettuce, so if you have too, well, that is what we were using. 

I threw in the grilled, diced nectarines (we used two total), some cayenne and red pepper flakes, lime juice (fresh from one lime), salt and pepper to taste.  And of course, the wild chives we had to give it a little something else.

This was probably the freshest tasting salsa we've had in a long time.  Maybe it was the beautiful evening we were enjoying on the patio while indulging in these fish tacos, but it was refreshingly and guilt free.  Crisp in flavors, it worked perfectly with the grilled trout we had.

So far, this week's CSA:
  • Cilantro
  • Wild Chives
  • Mache
  • Romaine (Nothing will be posted on this - it got slimy and wilted after a few days.  Insert sad face.)
  • Kale
  • Spinach (won't post this either - we had plans to make a pasta, but time ran out on us and it ended up as a lunch salad.)
Made anything recently that was completely guilt free, but made you feel like you were indulging?