Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tilapia with Tomato and Chickpeas

I have a suspicion that this baby I'm carrying is a vegetarian. Meats and some poultry makes me gag, and if I could, I would probably live off fruit or veggie salads. The only other foods I can handle are non-fishy smelling seafood, and fresh Tilapia is a good example of this. I bought a pound and brought it home and had no idea what to do with it. So I came up with this somewhat Mediterranean inspired recipe. It was pretty good and the chickpeas gave it a very nice texture to the dish...and the baby like it, too!

INGREDIENTS (serves 2 to 3)

  • 1 lb. Fresh Tilapia fillets
  • Flour
  • Olive oil and butter
  • 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 Tbs. pitted olives, preferably Greek, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon tomato paste
  • 1 sprig fresh oregano
  • 4 leaves fresh mint
  • 1/8 tsp. cumin
  • 1/8 tsp. coriander
  • 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 2/3 cup garbanzo bean (chickpeas)
  • 2/3 cup water
  • Coarse salt and pepper
  • Lemon wedges, for serving
DIRECTIONS

Run fillets over cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle a little salt only on one side of each fillet then lightly dredge in flour.

Heat about 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high. Working in batches, fry the fillets one minute per side and set aside on a plate. You may need to add more olive oil on the second batch. Fish will not be complete cooked through yet.

In the same skillet (don't clean it), add 1 tablespoon butter. When melted add the halved tomatoes, chopped shallots, olives, mint leaves, sprig of oregano, all the spices, garbanzo beans and 2/3 cup water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.

Place fish fillets on top of garbanzo-tomato sauce and cover. Simmer on very low for 10 minutes.

Before serving, remove the oregano sprig and mint leaves. Serve fillets over some rice and pour some the garbanzo-tomato over that.

No comments: