Oh yes, finally my oven is working again. After weeks waiting for the precious electronic control panel, out of the blue, and right before the storm gets into full gear, I received a phone call from the technician announcing that he got the piece and that he'll come to install it in a few minutes. Oh how happy I was to hear that. Just in time for Thanksgiving. I was already making alternative plans and thinking of ways to cook the turkey without an oven. Of course frying it was out of the question, but I had other ideas. I might explore them later, when I have the time and when we finish all the leftovers from the big day. Of course I started using it right away, just to make sure that it worked properly. So the first day we had pasta al forno, then I cooked some sweet potatoes. I still have to broil something. But that's not urgent. Yesterday, I cleaned the freezer and dug out the fish fillets that I've been harassing my husband about: I was sure we had them in the kitchen freezer, he kept opening it and insisting that we did not have any fish at all. We had cod, salmon and tilapia fillets. The choices are multiple, so I chose the tilapia.
TILAPIA FILLETS WITH VEGETABLES
Growing up, we used to have this dish a lot, especially on Fridays, when we had the famous fish meal that included several kinds of fish, grilled, fried and "in a pan", as we used to call it. I was not very fond of it. Maybe because I couldn't digest the idea of having fish and veggies in the same dish? Maybe because they usually made them with whole fish, and I didn't like the fact that I had to fish out the bones? Or was it because they usually used a lot of oil in it? As a matter of fact, I discovered that I did not like a lot of dishes as a child simply because they had a lot of fat in them. Now that I can cook, I discovered that by reducing the fat content, I actually love these same dishes. I remember that I used to pick up the potato slices from the pan. I loved them, they were lemony, crispy on the outside and tender inside. Well, today I'm in control, I have clean fillets of fish and I can do whatever I like with the dish. You'll need:
3 whole fillets of tilapia
1 medium onion
5 medium potatoes (I used red ones)
! large carrot
3 stalks celery
2 medium cloves of garlic
3 to 4 sprigs dill
1 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp lemon juice, plus round slices of lemon or lime (optional)
2 tbsp white wine or water
Salt, pepper and cumin to taste
Sprinkle salt, pepper and some lemon juice over the fish, and let stand. Peel the potatoes, the carrot and slice them in 1/4 inch slices. Put each vegetable in a pot, add some salt,cover with water and bring to a boil. The idea here is to cook them until al dente so that they would take the same time as the fish in the oven. Remove from heat and drain the vegetables. Peel the onion and thinly slice it. Also slice the garlic and chop the celery. In a non-stick rectangular pan, drizzle some oil and turn it around to cover the bottom. Arrange the onion slices on the bottom of the pan, add celery and garlic. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and cumin. Now arrange the fish fillets, drizzle another drop of oil and sprinkle some cumin. Top with the carrot and potato slices. Alternate with lime slices if you are using them. I prefer adding only the lime or lemon juice. Sprinkle salt, pepper and cumin, and add the dill. Sprinkle the rest of the lemon juice, the wine if using it, or water. Cover with foil and cook in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and give it 10 minutes more.
FISH EN COCOTTE
You can use the same recipe if you are cooking for one, or two, to have individually wrapped fish. Just cut a rectangle of foil, arrange the ingredients the same way, close the foil to make a pouch, and cook it in the oven as above. Just be careful when you open the pouch, it usually has a lot of steam. Cod fillet is best for this recipe: they are thicker and will not flake easily when you transfer the content into a platter.
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