J5’s Blog

I threw together this dish a couple of days ago after sneaking out on Ty to go to the pet store and supermarket. I knew I wanted to make a mushroom cream sauce and when I passed by the Tilapia on sale at Whole Foods I thought it would be perfect. As all seafood needs some sort of acid to bring out the flavours, and since citric always works well, I was going to pick up a lemon when I remembered I had unused oranges at home. That would prove to be a great choice for this dish. I also chose string beans as a side because they are easy and are 99 cents a pound around here.  Warning, I love cream and butter (I cook mostly French style) so you can reduce and substitute to make the dish healthier but in reality when fresh, non-processed ingredients are used, health is more about portions than any one component.

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 2 cups of baby bella (cremini) mushrooms sliced
• 1/4 cups of onions diced
• 1 clove of garlic diced
• 2Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• 1/2 pint of heavy cream
• 1 bay leaf
• 1tsp. powdered cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
• salt and pepper to taste

Side:

• olive oil (enough to coat beans)
• handful of string beans per serving
• a clove or two of garlic sliced
• salt and pepper liberally

Main:

• olive oil  (coat bottom of pan)
• 1 tilapia fillet per serving
• 1/2 orange per fillet (juice and zest)
• a small sprig of fresh rosemary (reserve some for garnish)
• fresh parsley for garnish
• salt and pepper liberally

Instructions

Prepare the fish by marinading the fillets in fresh squeezed orange juice and dusting the sides with salt, pepper,  shaved zest from the orange rind and rosemary leaves.  Set aside.  Make sure not to leave it marinading too long (5-10 minutes is good) as we are not making cevice and don’t want the acid to cook the fish.

Start the sauce by sautéing the onions in a small pot with 1Tbsp. of butter.  Add a pinch of salt.  After a few minutes add the rest of the butter and the mushrooms and some pepper.  Sauté until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms soft.   Add the garlic towards the end of the sautéing process being careful not to burn them. Next add the wine and boil off the alcohol.  Finally stir in the rest of the ingredients and adjust the seasoning.  Let the sauce reduce and thicken on the stove.

Next start on the string beans.  In a bowl coat them with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Drop into a hot pan and sauté them until cooked but still crunchy.  Getting a sear on one side of the beans will enhance the texture and flavour.  At the last minute add the garlic slivers.  Put this mixture in tin foil to keep them warm.

In the same pan, wiped with a clean dish towel, put enough olive oil to coat the bottom.  Make sure the oil is hot and place the tilapia fillet in the pan.  Cook until the fish becomes flaky and delicate (3-6 minutes per side).

On a plate place the string beans to one side and the tilapia on the other.  Top the tilapia with the sauce making sure to include a heaping of mushrooms.  Garnish with rosemary and parsley.

The contrast between the heavy cream sauce and the light taste of the orange and flakiness of the fish was amazing. There was a good balance of spiceyness and sweetness with a little bitterness provided by the parsley and string beans. About the only thing I would add would be a bed of rice. I even used the sauce to great effect on a pan fried chicken breast the next day.

Ty even hangs around when I cook. And the truth is now that I have to feed, wait an hour and walk him at night I have a set hour in which to relax and cook every day. Go figure.