One Pot (or Pan) Tilapia

This month's Go Ahead Honey it’s Gluten Free event is being hosted my Carrie, of Ginger Lemon Girl and this month’s theme is One Pot Meals.

I’ve been blogging for a while, but now I’m really starting to feel plugged into the community. This months Go Ahead Honey theme really works for me. Since, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m sure, I live in slightly crowded circumstances. My boyfriend’s mother does the family cooking, and I cook for myself and sometimes my boyfriend too.

So, when I get home from work all the burners on the stove are usually full. I try to do our weekly food preparation during the week, making morning muffins and mixed meat burgers for us to take to work. On the rare evenings that we get to have dinner together I have to keep it simple, and in one pan.

Now, I must point out that my boyfriend’s mother is also a master of one-pot meals, coming from a country with so little, but this is the one that I fix at least once a week.

My boyfriend is a personal trainer and he read in one of his magazines that some body builders rely on tilapia as a low calorie, high protein, and low fat fish. His first question was: “Mija! Can you cook Tilapia?” and after the first time I threw this together it’s been the same every week. As long as we eat together, I don’t even care what we eat; it’s just nice to have him home for a meal.

Now, Carrie has suggested that we post kid friendly one pot recipes, and I think my boyfriends picky eating habits; i.e. “I don’t eat green food” qualifies his favorite dish as kid friendly.

So, after stopping at, on average, three grocery stores on the way home in an attempt to find fresh tilapia, I get home. I take the Big Pan out of the cupboard and set it on the stove.

I crush, peel and chop about three cloves of garlic, peel and slice one yellow onion and dump those into the pan. Turn the heat up to medium and add a dollop of olive oil and some of whatever spices I have on hand.

While the onions and garlic are cooking I wash the tilapia and salt both sides with a sea salt, dulce and kelp mixture and slice about two large tomatoes.

When the onions are translucent, I push them to the middle of the pan, lay the tilapia on top and then layer the tomato slices over the top of the fish. I put the cover on the pan, turn the heat to low and let it cook until the fish is 1) cooked through 2) it falls apart or 3) my boyfriend gets home.

It’s simple, gluten free and delicious. It’s a staple in our “household” such as it is.

Tilapia on a Whim

Last weekend, while watching TV, my boyfriend asked me what tilapia was. He had read in his Flex magazine that some professional body builder was helping to train another and he recommended eating lots of tilapia. So naturally, my boyfriend wants to try tilapia too.

I did a little web research and learned that tilapia is not only on the “safe” list, it’s low calorie, high in protein and low in fat compared to, say, sea bass or tuna.

Never one to turn down a challenge I decided to give it a shot. I thought about what would be fairly fool proof, in terms of my boyfriend trying new foods: nothing fancy or spicy, and what ingredients I already had at home: the end of a bottle of white wine from my last seafood project.

On the way home I stopped at the local grocery, grabbed what looked good and threw this together.

2 fillets Tilapia
1 medium Vidalia or yellow Onion, sliced
2 cloves Garlic, sliced
1 Tomato, diced
3 sprigs fresh Rosemary, partially chopped
White Whine
Olive Oil
Salt and Fresh Pepper

Wash the tilapia and lay on a plate. Sprinkle salt, fresh ground pepper and chopped rosemary over fish. Clean and slice garlic and onions. Sautee garlic, onions and rosemary with salt and pepper until onions are translucent. Push onions to sides of pan, lay tilapia fillets in pan to sear on one side. After 3 minutes flip fillets and cover with onions. Add diced tomato and enough white wine to cover bottom of pan. Cover and cooked until fish is cooked through, about 7 minutes.

We had this with brown rice. I started the rice before I started to prepare the fish and they were done at just about the same time.

My boyfriend really liked it, the only thing that slipped my mind in the mad-dash for groceries was the lemon, luckily we always have limes in the refrigerator. I expect I’ll be making tilapia in ever more creative ways in the future.