Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Recipe: Tilapia Picata

If you've ever made or eaten chicken picata you can do the same recipe with tilapia. Tilapia is a boring fish. Good for you, light, not fishy but boring just steamed or even pan seared unless you can make a hell of a salsa or sauce with it. I bought it the other day because, shit, I'm running out of ideas and didn't want to have red meat or chicken again. I was just going to pan sear it and do a lemon caper dressing but hell, thats one step away from the picata recipe I've made thousands of times. So here it is if you want to try it. It was pretty damn good with the fish.

Tilapia Picata
feeds 2 adults

What you need:
2-3 pieces tilapia
1 1/2 lemons, half of one sliced, the other squeezed for juice
1 cup chicken broth
2 cloves garlic or 1 small shallot minced
tbsp or so of capers (I use a lot since they're awesome)
1 cup or so of almond flour (enough to lightly coat the fish)
olive oil
salt and pepper

What to do:
Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Coat fish with almond flour. Now, almond flour is not the best in terms of coating so dredge it, pat it down, dredge again and shake excess. It doesn't need to be completely covered, but get enough on there that it will stay put. Put the fish in the fridge for like 10 minutes to firm it up.

In a non stick skillet (don't use the cast iron because of the lemon juice, acid eats the iron), heat a glug of olive oil on med/high heat until almost smoking. Place the fish down and don't move it for about 4 minutes. 3 if they are small and thin cuts. I use olive oil because it tends to brown the flour better without falling off then say coconut oil or bacon fat... you can try it but I haven't had much success with it.

Flip over for another 3 minutes or so, then remove to a plate and keep covered or place it in a warm oven, 150-200 degrees is fine. Don't stress if the breading crumbles a bit in the pan since it will be incorporated with the broth in the next step.

Add a smidge of oil, you can use coconut or whatever at this point, but I stuck with the olive oil because it was right there. Add the minced garlic or shallot, turn the heat down to medium and cook it for a minute or so. Add the chicken broth and lemon slices, scraping up the brown bits. Simmer for about 10 minutes, add capers and lemon juice and simmer for a few more minutes. Plate the fish and spoon the sauce over. Done and done. And don't be afraid to let your cooked veggies soak in some of the juice. Yum.

Not much else to report. Recovery day for me, cleaning and tons of other stuff I need to get accomplished today.

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