Cilantro Lime Tilapia

Cilantro Lime TilapiaTilapia is the chicken breast of fish. It is cheap, easy to cook, and did I mention it is cheap? Tonight, I will "live blog" an experience. We are blending together two recipe into one because we are hungry and don't want to spend any money!

Recipe 1 is a Mahi Mahi recipe that we LOVE. We will borrow a few of the ingredients but mostly, we will use this method to cook. This recipe we found courtesy of the Food Network's website. Ingredients we will be using from this recipe are: (I'll post a more organized recipe list below)

• sprigs fresh thyme (I would have liked to use dried thyme, but we are out)
• sprigs fresh parsley (SUB: dried parsley)
• 8 cloves garlic, smashed
• 4 (6-ounce) skinless mahi mahi fillets (SUB: Tilapia)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (SUB: regular salt & ground pepper)
• 3/4 cup dry vermouth
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (SUB: Not fresh, lime juice)
• bay leaves, preferably fresh
• 12 cherry or pear red and yellow tomatoes, for garnish

Recipe 2 is a Broiled Parmesan Tilapia from All Recipes.

• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (SUB: freshly grated parmesan cheese)
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise (Don't need since we are using olive oil)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (SUB: lime juice)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8 teaspoon celery salt
• 2 pounds tilapia fillets

So, OUR recipe ingredients look like this: 

• 8 or 10 springs of fresh cilantro
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 8 cloves garlic, smashed
• 4 Tilapia fillets
• 1 cup dry vermouth
• 1/4 cup butter, softened (halved)
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/4 cup whole milk or heavy creamer

Directions

Preheat oven to 425

Just before we cover it and put it in the oven.

In a medium gratin dish or baking dish, make a "bed" of herbs with the springs of cilantro. Scatter smashed garlic over cilantro. Spread dried herbs evenly on top. 

Mix onion powder, salt, & pepper. Even coat both sides of the fish.

Lay fish on top of the bed of herbs. Add vermouth.

Mix extra virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese, lime juice, half of the softened butter. Ladle mixture on top of each piece of fish.

Cover fish and and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until fish is opaque, depending on the thickness of the fillets. Our fillets happened to be huge and took about 23 minutes.

Carefully pour the pan juices into a small saucepan and set the fish aside. I poured ours into a wide mouthed glass, put a straining screen on top of the cup and turned over the screen and cup over the pan. As the juices flowed through the screen into the pan, I moved the cup around to speed it up. I didn't want herbs, garlic, or pieces of fish to make their way into the sauce. Reserve the garlic and any herb sprigs for garnish.

Let the sauce start to cool. Slowly add the whole milk or heavy cream (about 1/8th to 1/4th cup - depending on how creamy you want the sauce) with the remaining 1/8th cup of melted butter while you stir so the cream doesn't curdle. Once stirred, bring the sauce to a boil over high heat and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes (ours took 8 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. Taste. Add 1/4 tsp of lime juice if you can't taste a hint of lime in the sauce. Set aside in 4 small glass bowls.

Divide fish among 4 serving plates. Ladle about 1 tbsp sauce over fish and garnish with the 4 remaining cilantro sprigs & the reserved garlic.

We served ours with Garlic Cheddar Biscuits and Cilantro Lime Rice!

I think it turned out great! The extra sauce was sooo good! We added more on the fish as we ate and even added some to the rice! If you try this recipe, let me know what you think and include any edits you make! We were very pleased since we just "threw something together" with what we already had. We would make & eat this again!