pan-fried tilapia

2019-04-22

Store-bought tilapia is usually farm-raised. I never liked it much because it always had an unpleasant aftertaste. That doesn’t seem to be the case with these fresh fillets the local Walmart has been selling lately. I did not use (much of a) spice mix, flour or batter to dip these fillets, because imo that tends to overpower the mild flavor of the fish.

Some may disagree and will say this not ‘blackened’ (as in butter dip and spice mix,) but glazed. My answer to that: I do home cooking, not French cuisine. The use of that term has imo been unfairly limited there. A glaze is a sauce. There is no sauce here, and all the sugars in the lime juice and cooking wine went into the (minimal) blackening.

Tilapia fillets are thin, and I like to treat them as a thin steak: high enough heat to get the blackening; but only for a fairly short time to push in enough heat to cook it through before it falls apart.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 2 servings:

3 tilapia filets ( (about 1 lb.)
2 limes
white cooking wine
S&P

Pic1: 'blackened' tilapia
2019-04-22

Directions

Optional:
- Soak the fillets in lime juice for about 15 minutes.
Season to taste.
Panfry the tilapia 2 minutes in hot olive oil.
I always cut the double fillets through the middle after a few minutes. That way, they’ll turn over easier without breaking.
Add 2 tbsp. lime juice and a splash of white cooking wine.
Turn the heat high and let liquid evaporate completely. Once that happens, the sugars in the lime juice and wine will caramelize and blacken the filets.
Turn over and do the blackening on the other side, no liquid needed.
Serve immediately. Enjoy.
Garnish with parsley or cilantro.

Pic2: tilapia fillet, raw — 2019-04-22
Pic3: pan-fry hot — 2019-04-22
Pic4: served another day — 2019-09-03

See also: tilapia in tomato sauce.

See also: tilapia in tomatillo sauce.

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more and avemariasongs.org

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more
and avemariasongs.org