Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Tasty Tuesday: Lemon Butter Tilapia with Basil

I consider myself a pretty good cook, but sometimes I still surprise myself with how yummy something I make tastes. Last night I was looking to make a quick dinner. We had spent the day swimming at my in-laws' home and by the time we got back to our house it was dinner time and the boy was super cranky. I decided that I wasn't doing anything in the kitchen until Adam put Aiden to bed (yes, he was that bad) so there I was rummaging through my freezer and my pantry looking for something decent I could make in a pinch at 7:30 at night, waaay past our dinner time. Chicken? Nah... I've had too much chicken lately. Didn't feel like it. Pasta? Adam would kill me I made a pasta dish again, especially since we're heading to NJ on Thursday and we'll be having Italian food for four straight days. And there it was. Tilapia. I had a bag of individually frozen fillets waiting for me to turn them into something delicious!

As soon as I decided on the fish, I knew I would make some kind of butter sauce so I started melting 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan on super-low heat. (Hint: Add a teaspoon of EVOO to your butter so that it doesn't burn.) Here's what the final recipe was:

Lemon Butter Sauce with Basil:

4 tbsp butter
Pinch Salt (I used unsalted butter, so it was necessary)
1 tsp EVOO (adding it to your melting butter will help prevent it from burning)
Juice of one lemon
Fresh Basil, slightly rough chop

Directions:

Melt the butter on very low heat, adding the teaspoon of EVOO to the saucepan at the same time as the butter. When the butter is melted add the salt and the lemon juice. Keep the basil aside until the fish is ready to serve.

Fish:

4 Tilapia filets
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder

Directions:

Rinse the Tilapia in saltwater. (I usually let it soak for at least 5 mins.) Season both sides of each fillet with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook the fish on the grill over medium high heat or pan sear in olive oil over medium high heat. (Mine came out better pan seared.) Just before serving the fish, add the basil to the lemon butter, then spoon mixture over each fillet. I had more than enough lemon butter, enough to serve with at least 6 fillets.

I served my fish with corn on the cob. It was light and SO delicious. Adam kept laughing at me because I kept saying, "Oh, my gosh, this is SO GOOD!"

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!


p.s. Sorry, folks, no picture this week! I ate it before I thought about taking a picture of it. :)

1 comment:

Bess said...

We are not fish lovers by any means, and we tried tilapia once and screwed it up. :o) We really want to like tilapia or salmon, and I know it's all in how it's cooked. SO, all that to say...I am definitely going to try your recipe sometime in the next week! ;o)