Tilapia and Fresh Herbs

Since I made meatballs the other day, I have extra parsley on hand. And when I have extra parsley, I like to fry it crispy. That may sound like a strange thing to do, but I love cooking with it and my favorite bits have always been the slightly burned bits. I figure, I am the cook, why don't I make it all that way and have a big pile of crispy awesome?

So I do that. And It's great. I like to pair it with fish because the contrast in the textures is just great.

Today, I paired my crispy parsley with some tilapia and other greenery. Yum.

Tilapia with Fresh Herbs

4 tilapia fillets

1cup curly parsley, rough chopped

1 red onion, diced

1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped

4 tbsp Italian Herb Olive Oil

Salt 

Warm the olive oil in a large saute pan. Place in the tilapia fillets. Saute about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan.

Keeping the heat on medium, add in the onions and the herbs. Keep everything moving so you don't over brown anything. Sprinkle on some salt to taste. Cook until the edges of the parsley start to crisp.

Spoon over fish.

Serve with whole wheat couscous or brown rice.

Easy Parmesan Meatballs

If you have a pound of ground meat in the fridge, some cheese, breadcrumbs and a little oil, we are in business to night!

Lets go with my husbands favorite: meatballs. Parmesan ones!

Easy Parmesan Meatballs

1 lb ground meat, I like turkey
1/4 cup Sun dried Tomato, Parmesan and Garlic Olive Oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs

Start by preheating your oven to 350degrees.

Mix all your ingredients in a large bowl. Form into about 12 meatballs.

Arrange on a baking sheet. As these bake, the parmesan gets everywhere, don't worry about it, they still taste great. But use a pan with sides, not a cookie sheet.

Bake 25-30 minutes.

I used my slow sauce to turn these into a sandwich. Life is good when you have food in the fridge!

Slow Sauce

This is not the slowest sauce I've ever seen recipes for. This is just the slowest thing I'll probably ever make. Turkey doesn't count. That's turkey. And still, the 5 hours that turkey takes is just a minute when compared to this long, slow, 8 hour sauce.

You can while away the time doing just about anything you please. And if you have a good electrical system in your house, unlike mine, you can even leave and go to work. Or run errands, or get a massage. Hmm... It's after the holidays. I might be due for some 'me-time.' After all, I just spent 8 hours making sauce!

Slow Sauce

2 28oz cans of whole or diced tomatoes
2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp Basil Olive Oil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp Bottarga Pate
1/2 - 1 cup white wine
5 tbsp chopped garlic
2 chopped carrots
crushed red pepper flakes
salt
pepper
1 bay leaf

Heat the Basil Olive Oil in a saute pan to medium heat. Add the chopped onions, garlic, paprika and turmeric. Saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The onions should be a little translucent and the spices should be nice and toasty.

Combine the onion/garlic mix with everything else in your slow cooker. Turn the heat to medium and cook, uncovered for 8 hours.

Remove the bay leaf.

This part is optional. I like to leave my sauce chunky and serve it right from the slow cooker. But you can process in batches in your blender until smooth, or use an immersion blender.

This freezes well. I like to freeze sauce in ice cube trays (best to have special ones just for sauce) so I can pop in a little tomato-y burst when I need it.

Warm Shrimp Salad

This is a per person recipe. I have made this for just me and I've made this for a group. It works as an appetizer or a main meal. It all depends on how much shrimp you put on!

Warm Shrimp Salad

5-7 Shrimp,cooked
1/2 tomatillo, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1/2 red or orange pepper, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
Black Pepper
1 1/2 tbsp Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
3 cups spring mix
1 tbsp Zesty Lemon Balsamic

Warm the Meyer Lemon Olive Oil in a saute pan. Add in the garlic and saute 1-2 minutes. Place the shrimp in the pan and sprinkle with a generous amount of black pepper.

Saute for about 5 minutes, turning once.

Assemble the salad. Toss the spring mix with with onion, pepper and tomatillo. Lay the shrimp on top and drizzle with the Zesty Lemon Balsamic.

Chicken with Artichokes and Wine

This recipe is for my mother. She has recently discovered artichoke hearts. Years past, she would never eat them. She thought they looked funny.Then she had them on a salad and that was that. Artichoke love!


Chicken with Artichokes & Wine

4 chicken breasts
1 cup white wine
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 small can artichoke hearts
2 tbsp Italian Herb Olive Oil
1-2 tbsp brown or raw sugar
2 tbsp bottarga pate

Heat the Italian Herb Olive Oil in a pan to medium high. Add the chicken breast, bottarga pate and the onion. Saute until the chicken begins to brown. Preheat your oven to 375degrees.

Transfer to a casserole pan. Distribute the artichoke hearts around the chicken and pour in the wine. Sprinkle everything with the brown sugar.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Serve with Rice Pilaf.

Chili Rubbed Salmon

I love salmon. It is my favorite fish. I end up making more tilapia because my husband kind of likes it, and it is cheaper. But when I'm making fish just for me, salmon it is.

The measurements here are for one 5-6 inch filet. You can scale it up or down however you like it.

Chili Rubbed Salmon

1 piece of Salmon
1 tbsp Chipotle Olive Oil, + 1tsp
1- 2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

Set the oven to broil.

Rinse and pat your salmon dry. Take 1 tsp of the Chipotle oil and rub it on the skin side. This is to make sure it doesn't stick. Lay it on a baking pan.

Rub the 1 tbsp of oil on the top. Sprinkle the spices over and rub them in to coat every bit well.

Broil for about 10 minutes.

Voila! Fish!

Jalapeno Tilapia Pouches

I wish that one day I could walk into my kitchen and find everything I need. I don't have a large kitchen or much cabinet space, and as such I tuck things away into small spaces and find them months later. Hopefully, whatever it was hasn't gone bad by then.

Last night, I was walking around my whole apartment looking for my jar of sliced jalapenos.

Not something you expect to lose.

But I did have my bottle of Jalapeno Olive Oil. And that will do.

Jalapeno Tilapia Pouches

Parchment paper
4 Tilapia Fillets
1 tomatillo, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
Himalayan Pink Salt
4 tbsp Jalapeno Olive Oil
Sliced jalapenos, optional

Preheat your oven to 450degrees.

If you have any of these, that is awesome! If not, you get to make your own pouches. I rolled the sides up, put everything inside and then rolled the top down. It worked fine. But if you do a quick search on how to make them, many people have much better ways...that also won't get the tops of the parchment all brown and crispy.

Place the fish inside your pouch, toss the peppers and tomatillos inside as well. If you can find your jar of sliced jalapenos, toss a few of those in too.

Sprinkle 1 tbsp of the Jalapeno Olive Oil over each fillet. Roll your pouch closed and bake for 15 minutes.

I enjoyed this with some salad and white rice. Go Fish!