Tuesday Night Dinner: Roasted Tilapia with Potatoes and Lemons

For Tuesday night dinner last week, I found a really simple but tasty looking recipe in the October issue of Real Simple. I am a huge fan of this magazine. It always has really handy tips, excellent personal interest stories, and delicious but simple recipes. For instance, this roasted tilapia I made for dinner. This was probably one of the easiest meals I've thrown together. It all goes in the oven, and you just need to give it time to bake. I served it with some sauteed green beans and steamed broccoli and squash on the side, but you could just as easily throw together a nice green salad to serve on the side.

Roasted Tilapia with Potatoes and Lemons (from Real Simple)
1 pound red potatoes, halved
1 lemon, thinly sliced
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
4 6-oz skinless tilapia filets
1/2 teaspoon of paprika

Heat oven to 400 degrees. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes, lemon, thyme, 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer. Roast, tossing once, until the potatoes begin to soften, about 20 minutes.
Toss the olives with the potato mixture; nestle the fish in it. Drizzle the fish with the remaining oil and season with paprika and 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper.
Continue to roast until the potatoes are golden brown and crisp and the fish is opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes.

Tilapia with Lemon and Dill

So this week my friend Katy came in to visit us. Katy, like my roommate, doesn't eat meat, but does eat seafood. My sister, who also lives with me, doesn't eat shrimp. Fish then is one of the more affordable lean proteins we can all agree on. I found this recipe for tilapia with lemon and dill over at For the Love of Cooking. It's delicious. And really so easy to throw together. I recommend serving it with a side of roasted asparagus for a light meal.

Tilapia with Lemon and Dill (from For the Love of Cooking)
three tilapia fillets
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
a few sprigs of torn dill
a tsp or two of lemon zest
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine the above ingredients and marinate the fish for 2-4 hours. (Due to time constraints, I only marinated for about an hour and I thought it was fine.)

Juice two lemons and after marinating, add the lemon juice to the fish fillets. In a glass dish sprayed with cooking spray, place the fillets and pour the lemon juice over them. Add a few more sprigs of torn dill and place a thick pat of butter on top of each fillet and season with sea salt and cracked black pepper. Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake in the oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, until fish is flaky.

Baked Dover Sole & Sauteed Green Beans and Mushrooms

For a quick, easy, and healthy dinner, I highly recommend this one. I'm craving seafood for some reason this week, and so last night I picked up some Dover sole from the store as well as fresh green beans, cremini mushrooms, and a red onion. It was so easy to put together, and everything cooked really fast, which was also a plus given how late I'd gotten home.

Season the fish with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, making sure to cover both sides. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes.

Mince two cloves of garlic. Wash the green beans and put them into boiling water for a couple minutes. Remove from boiling water and dunk into bowl of ice water. Heat olive oil in a wok or skillet. Saute onions until they get a little brown and tender then add green beans and mushrooms. Add the garlic a few minutes later and toss the vegetables together. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until green beans are tender.

Becky: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol

Flounder with Mushrooms and Wine

-1 pound flounder, sole or other delicate fish fillets, about 3/4 inch thick
-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/8 teaspoon pepper
-1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine
-1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
-1/3 cup sliced leeks
-1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
-1/4 cup sliced almonds
-1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. If fish fillets are large, cut into 4 serving pieces. Arrange in ungreased square baking dish, 8 X 8 X 2 inches. Sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.
3. Melt butter in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook mushrooms and leeks in butter, stirring occasionally, until leeks are tender. Stir in wine. Pour mushroom mixture over fish. Sprinkle with almonds and cheese.
4. Bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.
4 SERVINGS

This recipe came from the Betty Crocker's Big Red Cookbook. Since most of my recent recipes have been chicken dishes, I decided to try a fish recipe this time. I thought this recipe sounded particularly appropriate because I currently have plenty of white wine in my refrigerator. I had also never tried leeks before so I was excited to make this.
I chose sole for the fish fillets because I could not find flounder at the grocery store where I always shop. The only complaint I have about using sole is the fact that it breaks so easily. When I was done baking the fish, it was impossible to take the fillets out of the baking dish without them crumbling into pieces. Also, I only had slivered almonds on hand so rather than spend extra money to buy sliced almonds, I just used the slivered onces instead.
All in all I do recommend this recipe. It was very easy to prepare, and fast as well. I had no idea that leeks were in the onion family and that they separate into rings when you slice them. I always imagined leeks to be solid and to have a bland taste, so I was surprised to find that they were so similar to onions in taste and texture.The white wine also gave the fish a very strong, distinctive flavor. I enjoyed it, although my husband on the other hand wouldn't even try it because he doesn't like seafood, among many other foods. I would definitely make this dish again for myself, however :)