Tilapia Part 2: It swims (in butter) and my kids love it

Okay, following that last tilapia post, are you ready for a recipe? Sure you are!

Tilapia is basically a pretty healthful fish. It’s low in sodium. It is also a good source of niacin and phosphorus, and a very good source of protein, vitamin B12 and selenium. The one main problem: because it’s a lean fish, it’s not the best source of omega-3 fatty acids (one serving has just one-third the daily requirement). As discussed in the previous post, it’s one of the most enviro-friendly fish out there (particularly if you get it from a U.S. source).

So…the recipe.

I want to offer word of caution: what follows is not haute cuisine. It is not something you will find served in high-end restaurants, or on heart-healthy menus. It is, rather, the recipe for people who want to encourage non-fish-eaters to actually eat fish. The meal is non-fishy-tasting, it’s dripping with yummy stuff like butter and cheese, and it’s famliar in a comfort-food sort of way.

I selected the recipe, Broiled Tilapia Parmesan, from Allrecipes.com, because it required a total start-to-finish cooking time of just 15 minutes (15 minutes!!), and it had a five-star rating after a whopping 2,300+ reviews (2,300+ reviews!!).

The recipe called for 2 lbs tilapia fillets, but I only had one, so I cut it down:

Ingredients
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter, softened (slightly more than called for in recipe)
1.5 tablespoons mayonnaise
fresh lemon juice (recipe equivalent would be 1 tablespoon, I used juice from half a small lemon)
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon garlic spice mixture (recipe calls for onion powder in slightly lower portions; I didn’t have any, and I like garlic flavor, so that’s what I used)
few shakes celery salt
1 pound tilapia fillets
Black pepper

I didn’t follow the directions, exactly – I kind of just mixed all of the non-fish ingredients, smeared it on the bottom of the pan (covered in parchment paper, because I was afraid it would get messy), placed the tilapia over the mixture, spooned/smeared some mixture over the top of the fish, then stuck the whole thing in the oven until the topping was browned and fish flaked easily with a fork. The actual recipe calls for leaving out the parmesan cheese for the first several minutes, flipping the fish, and adding the cheese at the end. You should probably try it their way (2,300+ reviewers can’t be wrong). But me? I was pretty happy with mine.

Here’s what it looked like:

Okay, it doesn’t look great in that photo — try to imagine it on a plate, with bright green beans and maybe a colorful salad — but the kids gobbled it up happily. I had to make a point to reserve some for the baby’s lunch the next day (when she ate it even more enthusastically and cried when it ran out). I mean, really, it’s kind of a kid’s dream recipe: mayonnaise, cheeese, butter. And because the fish isn’t a fishy-fish, and the spices are all familiar, there’s none of that “But I don’t liiiiike fish,” stuff. They just ate it. Happily. Without complaint.

Cholesterol be damned! My spreading waistline be damned, as well! Sneers and jeers from celebrity chefs and foodies? Yes, you, too, be damned! We’ll be eating this one again!