Fish

A while back I picked up some tilapia at Whole Foods during one of their weekly deals promotions. I was thinking I’d just bake it but one of my buddies quickly put an end to that by sending me his special recipe rub for pan frying.

The first batch I made, I didn’t realize how quickly the fish would cook and ended up overcooking them (I don’t cook fish that often, that should change soon though ). The 2nd batch came out much better and held together out of the pan much better.

Next time I think I might add some flour and an egg to make sure the rub sticks to the fish a little better. Without the egg, some of the rub ended up flaking off as I turned the fish.

The measurements are approximate, I didn’t measure them out this time.

Pan fried seasoned tilapia

Ingredients
3-4 tilapia fillets
1/2 tbsp Sea Salt (Other salt fine)
1/2 tbsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Rosemary
3-4 tbsp Italian Breadcrumbs
2-3 tbsp grated Parmesan or Romano

Method
1. Combine the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary in a bowl, mix well.
2. Rub each side of the tilapia fillet with the mixed spices
3. Coat each fillet with breadcrumbs
4. Pan fry over medium heat with some olive oil.
5. When close to finished, sprinkle some cheese on each fillet

I’d been really looking for a good recipe for homemade teriyaki sauce for quite a while. I used to get some sauce now and then from Nagoya in New Jersey but I end up there very infrequently these days. I’ve tried many different bottled sauces but never really grew attached to any of the different brands available. And then I found a great recipe over at Soy and Pepper, read all of the praising comments, saw a similar recipe over at Closet Cooking and figured I had to give it a go!

I ended up adding a couple other ingredients (some ground ginger and a dash of garlic powder) but it turned out very similar.

I got some really great looking Steelhead Trout from Whole Foods and threw it in with the marinade right away. Left it in the fridge for about an hour (Wanted it that night, didn’t want to wait any longer!)

Broiled Steelhead in Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients
2 Salmon/Steelhead fillets (about a pound)
3 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin or sweet sherry
2 tbsp sake or dry white wine/sherry
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
dash of garlic powder
sesame seeds to garnish

Method
1. Mix everything but the sesame seeds and salmon together.
2. Marinate the Salmon in the sauce for at least an hour (overnight is ok)
3. Bake the fish for about 10 minutes at 350F. You may have to bake the fish a little longer depending on how thick it is.
4. After baking, turn on the broiler for about 4-5 minutes to sear and to continue cooking.

Here’s a processed image of the same shot

I had a nice large piece of sea bass that I was going to do something fancier with but I ended up getting lazy and just broiling it. I’ve always liked fish but the main reason I usually don’t cook it often is that I have to buy it and then cook it that day (or the next). That and fish tends to be on the expensive side of the meals that I usually make

So while broiling is really easy, cleaning the pan is a pain in the butt! Even after soaking the pan, it still is a little smelly and I wasn’t able to clean all the gunk off So I’ll be using tin foil next time!

Anyway, here’s all you do:

1. Rub salt, pepper, some garlic, and some lemon juice onto the fish.
2. Broil for 8-10 minutes.
3. Eat.

So many of you know that I read about 30 different food blogs and all kinds of dishes swim around my mind during the day at the office. Tonight I wanted to have something fishy or of the sort and found this awesomely simple recipe from WokkingMum. I adapted it a little bit to my own tastes but I got the idea from there.

It’s not the most healthy dish since it uses Mayo but I combined the fish with some pasta I had lying around and it turned out great! The pasta I used, for the curious, is a lemon parsley mafaldine made by Pappardelle’s Pasta. Granted, it’s not the cheapest stuff in the world (it’s really pricey pasta!) but it’s really tasty, even without sauce!

Baked Lemony Cod with Garlic Mayo

Ingredients:
1 lb Cod (Filets or with skin, broken into portions)
Pepper and Salt to taste

Sauce:
3-5 cloves Garlic depending on your tastes, minced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 generous tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
2. Rub some salt and pepper onto both sides of the fish
3. Place Cod (Skin down) on a baking dish
4. Mix the ingredients for the sauce together. Mince the garlic as fine as you can.
5. Spread the mixture over the fish.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
7. Serve immediately

And there you have it. If using other whitefish than Cod, add a teaspoon or so of olive oil to the bottom of the pan before placing the fish in.