Tilapia with Pesto and Cacio e Pepe

 

Hello. My name is Katy, and I am a month behind in blogging. I thought I could get away with this, since zero people read my blog... but alas, I have been found out. 

Anyway, sometime back in April I made tilapia with pesto. The pesto was super yummy and flavorful which was a good thing because the tilapia was BLAND without it. I usually love tilapia, but I just haven't had much luck lately. 

With the fish, I served one of my stand-by dishes-- cacio e pepe. In other words, noodles+cheese+black pepper= delicious. You can google this and find a thousand ways to make it, but my standard method is boil noodles in salty water to just a minute or so shy of my desired tenderness. Then, save a cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Meanwhile, heat 2 or so TBSP of olive oil in the pasta pan til it's realllllly hot. You can also throw some buttah in here (which I do when I have some). The, put the pasta back in and stir it around, and then pour the pasta water over it as needed. Throw in whatever kind of cheese you want (plain old parm is my favorite, but romano is decent too) crack a ton of black pepper over the top (and when you think you are done, just give it like two more shakes) and then lightly toss everything together. In theory, the cheese should stick to all of the noodles and make every bite taste salty and gooey, but sometimes you will end up with a giant ball of goopy cheese that is somehow not stuck to any pasta. It still tastes good if that happens, fyi.

"it's a good one to remember"

Today was a gorgeous spring day. I spent much of it outside walking or gardening, and the beautiful freshness of spring just made me crave a healthy meal.

So, I checked the content of my fridge and was inspired. I served pan seared tilapia with a roasted red pepper sauce, roasted curried cauliflower, and a fennel orange and mint salad.



Tilapia
- four small tilapia fillets
- salt, pepper
- 2 tsp lemon oil
Pat the fillets dry and salt and pepper both sides. Heat oil in fry pan on Med-High heat making sure entire surface is coated. Add fish and cook for 8-10 minutes, turning once.
Tilapia could not be easier to prepare; however, it is very bland and requires either a very flavorful sauce or some intense seasoning to be good. Tonight, I opted for the former.


Roasted Red Pepper sauce
- 2 red bell peppers
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- salt/pepper
- 1 TBSP butter
- 1 cup fat free Greek yogurt
- rough chopped basil (in sauce and for garnish, to taste)

First, roast the red peppers: Put them under the broiler or over  a burner (turning when necessary) until skin is charred and blistered. Put in a plastic bag and allow to cool for 45 minutes. The skin will separate from the flesh very easily at this point. Discard seeds and blackened skin and put the softened flesh into a food processor or blender.
Next, roast the garlic (these two steps actually overlapped for me). Cut the roots off of a garlic head, and put the head on a piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle with olive oil and then wrap it up and roast it for around 30 minutes. Cutting the roots off instead of cutting the top off allows for very easy removal of the garlic cloves once they are roasted-- you can literally just squeeze them out! Once pieces are roasted, squeeze them into the food processor with the red pepper.
Add the olive oil and pulse til smooth. Optional-- you can add basil at this point and puree. I rough chopped and saved it til later.
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter, and then add the puree to the pan. Add yogurt (milk would also work) and basil if you have not yet. Salt and pepper to taste.
This sauce was AMAZING. It is sweet and flavorful, and Tim has already come up with many more uses for it (veggie dip, on crackers, etc). I will DEFINITELY be making this again. I think I would like to try other bell peppers too 

Roasted Curried Cauliflower
- 1 head cauliflower
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- curry powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Chop up cauliflower to even sized florets. Put in a 9 x 13 pan. Drizzle with alive oil, and sprinkle with desired seasonings (I think I used about a TBSP of curry and a 5 "twists" each of cracked pepper and sea salt). Toss til all pieces are evenly coated. Put in a 425 oven for 40 minutes. Take out and re-toss half way. I always forget about cauliflower, but I saw a recipe similar to this last week and thought it sounded good. The curry gave it some good flavor without being over powering, and roasting it allowed some of the florets to caramelize and brown on top which was pretty fantastic. Tim liked it too, especially doused in the red pepper sauce.


Fennel, Orange, and Mint Salad
I was inspired by this recipe. I followed the recipe in terms of ingredients (fennel, orange, almond, and mint; EVOO, OJ, and mustard for the dressing) but not at all for the proportions. I don't really know how much of each ingredient I used other than oranges (1.5) and fennel (1 bulb). Anyway, it was a DELISH. Tim was less excited about this than the rest of the meal, though he did say he liked the fennel. It tasted springy and fresh to me, and I hope to have it again soon. I might try keeping the fennel raw for some variety.

Somewhere over the rainbow (trout)

In preparation for Friday night Lenten dinners, I've been spending a lot of time at the fish counter lately. Typically I go for salmon or tilapia (and lately I've been picking up the scallops a bit more). But lately, all of the salmon available in my grocery store is farm raised, has dye added, or is extremely expensive. For this reason, I decided to try to prepare trout this week.

The two rainbow trout fillets were much less expensive than salmon, and seemed to have more color than even the "dye added" cuts I was looking at. The only problem was, I've never prepared trout before! It was surprisingly easy. On the side, I had a "what is in my fridge that I need to use up" party.

Rainbow trout: serves 4 (or two with leftovers)
2 1/2 pound trout fillets
zest and juice of one lemon
1TBSP butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup (or so?I don't know, I didn't measure) roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Pat fillets dry with a paper towel. Salt and pepper to taste and put on a baking sheet. I sprayed the sheet AND the fillets with olive oil (I find that spraying allows for a more even coat, no excess oil, and fewer calories!) Bake fillets for 10-15 minutes depending on thickness.

Meanwhile, in a small saute pan, melt the butter, and toss in the pecans to toast lightly. Nuts are very easy to burn, so keep the heat on medium, stir often, and use your nose to smell when they are done! When they are fragrant, turn heat on very low (or just turn it off) and add in lemon juice (I found the sauce wasn't bright enough so I added in the zest too-- I would typically recommend zesting the lemon BEFORE you cut and juice it, but it happened in the reverse order here). When the fish comes out of the oven, spoon the sauce over and sprinkle with parsely.

The fish was good, but next time I will try trout without butter on top. It is rich and delicious enough as it is! But, it is definitely a fish I am happy to add to my repertoire. 

My side dishes:
1. White shoepeg corn.
This was gross. I will never buy it again. Frozen corn is the only thing that gets this Iowa girl through winter and spring in anticipation of fresh, delicious sweet corn, but I will NEVER get anything with "white" or "shoepeg" in the name again. It wasn't sweet, it was chewy, and it looked yucky on the plate.
2. Buttermilk mashed potatoes.
I had three russet potatoes and a few cups of buttermilk leftover from St. Paddy's day so I decided to use them up. I peeled and diced up the taters and got them in a pot of water on the stove. I added salt to the water once it was boiling. Once soft, I drained them, and threw them back in the pan with a TBSP of butter (actually it might have been butter substitute) one clove of minced garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, and buttermilk. I started with about a quarter cup, wanting to make sure I had the right ratio. So, as I mashed, I added more until it was a consistency I wanted.
I thought the potatoes were good-- the tang was a nice contrast to the rich fish. Tim was less impressed. He ate them, but he had a very confused expression on his face the entire time. The tang definitely threw him for a loop.

Overall, a decent dinner!