Fish Food...Take One

It's been a bit of an up and down week here so I apoligize for disappearing from the radar the past few days.  Let's just say I'm in a serious TGIF mood and may just have to treat myself to a hot bath, a glass or two (or bottle) of wine and some Sons of Anarchy:) 

If you read my previous post, Here Fishy, Fishy, you know that I'm not a huge fan of fish but I'm trying to include more fish on our menu.  I can't stand fishy tasting fish...how ridiculous does that sound...lol, so I favour a light tasting fish and seem to have settled on tilapia.  I know I'm going to have to continue to expand my horizons in this area but that's for another time.  The last time I made tilapia it was ok, January loved it, but I found it a little bland and wanted to try a quick marinade to see if that helped.  To make a long story short, I looked at a bunch of different recipes, decided the hell with it, lets just fly by the seat of my pants and came up with something that was pretty good. 

Lemon Dilly Cilantro Tilapia

For the Marinade

3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Clove Garlic, minced (might try 2 Cloves next time)
1/2 Tbsp Epicure Lemon Dilly Dip Mix
1/2 Tsp Dijon Mustard

For the Breading

3/4 c. Panko Breadcrumbs
1/4 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
Pinch Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper

For the Tilapia

2 Tilapia Fillets
1 Tbsp Mayonnaise
1/4 Tsp Dried Cilantro

I started off by rinsing the fillets off and them patting them dry with paper towels.  Then they went into a 9x9 pan while I mixed all the marinade ingredients together.  Once the marinade was mixed up I poured it over the fillets and used a brush to ensure the tops were covered as well and covered them up with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for about a half hour (next time I think I'll increase that to an hour or so). 

While the fillets were in the fridge I added all the breading ingredients to a shallow bowl that would be big enough for a fillet and mixed them all together.  Then I took the 1 Tbsp of Mayo and the 1/4 Tsp of Cilantro and mixed that together in a small prep bowl.

About 10 minutes before I took the fillets out of the fridge I preheated my oven to 400F and took a baking sheet, covered it with aluminum foil and placed a wire rack over top that had been sprayed with oil.


Once the 30 minutes was up, I took a fillet out of the marinade, let it drip off a bit and then quickly brushed some of the mayo mixture over it.  After that it was into the breadcrumb mixture where I made sure the fillets were well coated. 






















Once both fillets were well coated I carefully placed them on the wire rack and threw them in the oven to cook.  I left them in there about 16 minutes, I was looking for an internal temperature of 145F. 


Once they were done, I carefully took them off the rack using a spatula and served them up with some Epicure Roasted Garlic Aioli, Roasted Asparagus and rice.  I was pretty impressed with the flavour but definitely want some more crunch next time so I think I'll do a quick pan fry before putting them in the oven.