Any fish you wish; an improvisational tail, er tale – Sautéed Tilapia, with a warm lime & cilantro salsa

Last week, one of my roommates from college, Greg, tells me about this new website he’s affiliated with and asks me to check it out, which I did. After about two hours of back and forth, the thing stops working.

“We broke it,” I IMed him.

“LOL”, he replied. “We did not.”

“It stopped working. We broke it.”

“I’ll call ****** (name redacted for the obvious reasons).”

After about 25 minutes or so, it came back online. So far, so good. But, testing the site had seriously eaten into my afternoon, leaving exactly ZERO time for dinner-type foraging. Dinner would have be something hastily assembled from whatever is in the ‘fridge. That was Tilapia, cannellini beans (in a can) and left over Chinese carryout rice.

Ingredients

Fish

• 3 portions of Tilapia of some other flaky, white fish, such as Flounder, Haddock, or Halibut
• ½ cup corn meal, for dredging
• ½ cup all purpose flour, again for dredging
• Some sort of all purpose Italian herb medley (I use Catanzaro herb Blend from The Savory Spice Shop, but any blend with oregano, thyme and rosemary will work.)

Salsa

• 1 cup fresh tomatoes, diced
• 1 tablespoon (or so) fresh cilantro, minced
• ½ small yellow onion, minced
• The juice of two limes
• Salt to taste

Beans

• 1 can white navy or Cannellini bean
• 1 ½ tablespoon tomato paste (Trader Joe’s has tomato paste in a tube like toothpaste. It is so cool!)
• 4 to 6 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Fresh rosemary to taste

Technique

Start with the beans first, since the fish can be done in a few minutes and the beans can sit. Into a 1 quart saucepan over medium heat, add your olive oil. After giving it a few minutes to warm up, add your garlic. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add your beans to the mix and stir. Add your tomato paste, and stir to mix thoroughly. Once, it’s hot and bubbly, add your rosemary and remove from the heat. Now, mix the corn meal, flour and herb mixture together.  Then, dredge your fish through the mixture and pan sauté in a hot skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté until brown (maybe 5 minutes), making sure to flip the fish only once.  Remove the fish to the serving plates. Add the tomatoes, onions and salt, sautéing for 4 to 5 minutes or until soft. Deglaze the pan with your lime juice. Top your fish with the salsa. Pair with your beans and rice and dinner is served.