Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Tilapia with Lemon Butter Sauce! Yum!!!

Ok girls, my hubby and I are not seafood lovers nor had I ever cooked any type of seafood either, but I wanted to try something new and so I bought a few tilapia fillets the other day. I kept wondering how the heck to cook it when I stumbled upon a recipe I had picked up a while ago from Publix (you know those little cards they have at the entrance?). It was so yummy or, in my husband's words: "Restaurant quality!" that I had to share with you all! Here is their recipe (Publix) and, after that, my notes (i.e.: what I did differently):

Ingredients:

4 tsp. flour, divided
1 tsp. seasoned salt
large zip-top bag
5-6 springs fresh Italian parsley
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 lbs. of tilapia fillets
3 TBS. butter, divided
1/4 cup of white wine

Steps:

1. Place 3 tsp. flour and seasoned salt in zip-top bag; shake to mix and set aside. Chop (rinsed) parsley coarsely, leaves only, and measure (2 TBS). Slice (rinsed) lemon in half. Set both aside.

2. Preheat large saute pan on medium-high 2-3 mins. Check fish for bones by pressing on fillet with fingertips and remove. Add fish to zip-top bag; seal tightly and shake to coat. Wash hands.

3. Place 1 TBS of butter in pan and swirl to coat. Add fish (wash hands) and cook 3 mins. Add 1 TBS butter to center of pan. Turn fillets, using a spatula, distributing butter under each fillet. Cook 3 more mins. until fish is golden and flakes easily. Place fish on serving plates.

4. Place remaining 1 TBS of butter and 1 tsp flour, wine and juice from lemon in saute pan. Heat 1-2 mins until thickened, stirring occasionally. Stir parsley into butter sauce and serve over fish.

My Notes:
1. I found that the amount of flour and seasoned salt that the recipe says to use was not enough for all the fish, for it only covered like 2 of the fillets fully. So I say add another tsp of seasoned salt and 2 more tsp of flour into the zip-top bag (which I found to be the best idea ever!) so that it will really cover all the fillets.
2. I didn't have fresh parsley, so I just used the dried one (from my spice rack). I measured it to be what the recipe says (2 TBS) and I thought was a little too much. So if you are going this route, try only 1 TBS.
3. For the cooking of the fillets, I didn't really measure the butter, I just would put in as needed (since I wanted my fillets to be a little more golden, I left them just a little bit more than 3 mins on each side, so I had to keep adding a little bit of butter for it not to burn).
4. Because my husband and I do not drink, I don't have white wine (like the recipe says) at home, so I used white COOKING wine instead. Although I didn't like the lemon sauce too much because of the extra amount of parsley, my hubby LOVED it, so I think the white cooking wine was a good replacement for regular wine.

Let me tell you that, after tonight, I will be making Tilapia a little more often =)
Enjoy!

PS: I totally FORGOT to take pics! Darn it! I shall take pics next time I make it, promise!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Tammy that sounds so easy and delish - DH looovess anything with wine and seafood combined so we will probably use the real stuff, LOL..

Adri said...

That sounds great, Tammy! I make a lot of tilapia, so you just gave me a new way to make it. Thanks!

alengirl said...

Sounds delish! I might try it tonightsince I always have tilapia on hand and I have a ton of Lemons that I haven't used. BTW, I found these sites, they are dry spice vs fresh conversion chart. Hope it helps for future reference :)
http://www.tones.com/spiceInsights.html#2

http://groups.msn.com/WorldwideFoodFriends/spicetrade.msnw

Angie :)

alengirl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LLove said...

Ok I love seafood so this is a must try for me. Davey will be really thankful!

Alessandra said...

Sounds delish Tammy!!!
YOu are becoming one great chef!!

Justine said...

i make this for Alexis and he looooooovvvvvvvveeeeesssssss it!
i made some adjustments to the sauce though but it's great