Tilapia Ceviche

Mmmm... ceviche!
Tilapia Ceviche from http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--3523/tilapia-ceviche.asp

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds tilapia fresh and cubed into small chunks
- 15 limes - cut in half
- 1 white onion - large and diced
- 2 tomatoes - diced
- 1 avocados - chopped
- 1 jalapeño - seeded and chopped, more to taste
salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup cilantro - chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
Cut fish into small pieces.
Squeeze lime halves over the fish pieces in a large bowl. (A hand juicer works nicely for this.)
Be sure all of the pieces are completely covered with lime juice.
Cover with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator to marinate overnight or for at least 12 hours.
Note: The acidity of the lime juice cooks, or cures, the tilapia.
Remove from the refrigerator, do not drain.
Chop onion, cilantro, tomatoes, avocado, jalapeños and add it into the marinated fish.
Mix in olive oil and salt
Serve with assorted crackers as an appetizer.

Update April 12, 2009: Well, I didn't die. I cured the fish for 12 hours and added the other ingredients. I wasn't super in-love with it, but I'd give it a 7 out of 10. By the way, HORRIBLE dish as a leftover. The avocado turns brown and makes the dish look nasty, even though I know the avocado is fine. Anyway, best served fresh and eaten all in one sitting.

Almond-Topped Fish

My sister gave me this recipe to try. She really liked it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Almond-Topped-Fish/Detail.aspx?src=etaf

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 (6 ounce) fillets fresh or frozen cod or haddock, thawed
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted

DIRECTIONS
Place butter in a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish; place in a 400 degrees F oven until melted. Spread butter over bottom of dish; cover with onion. Arrange fish over onion; sprinkle with salt, dill and pepper. Combine the Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, parsley and lemon juice; spread over fish. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Sprinkle with almonds.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving (1 fillet) equals 223 calories, 7 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 86 mg cholesterol, 716 mg sodium, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 33 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 4 lean meat, 1 fat, 1/2 starch.

January 31, 2008 update:
Tried this recipe for the first time. Didn't have haddock fish so used the pollack I had instead. Used the Kraft fake parmesan and fresh dill. I think it was coriander too, instead of parsley.



I really enjoy garlic with my food and although this had none, I surprisingly, still really enjoyed it. I wouldn't have thought to bake mayonnaise but it added a really nice crust to the fish, with deep flavour without being overbearing. The crunch of the almonds was a nice textural contrast. The fish wasn't flaky enough for me although I did cook it for longer than the suggested time and it was a bit too moist. Which is not a usual thing for me to say because I don't like dry fish.


AFTER



Rating: 8 out of 10
Things to do different next time: Use a different type of fish. Maybe the ones that are suggested by the recipe.



Update February 1, 2008:
This is NOT a good leftover food to eat when you've drunk too much and you're looking for something to absorb the alcohol in your stomach. One piece in my mouth and I thought I was going to hurl.

Salmon teriyaki with udon noodles

Since I still had a whole filet left from my party, I needed to do something else with that salmon.
Nica and I had been out all day doing errands and when we finally got home, I thought about having udon noodles with salmon teriyaki on top.

Here is what I used:
1/3 salmon filet from Costco
teriyaki sauce (the huge tub from Costco, where else?)
salt and pepper
2 packages udon noodles (from Superstore, the ones that don't need to be refrigerated)
soy sauce
worcestire sauce
oyster sauce
water
broccoli
cabbage
garlic
1/2 onion, sliced
oil

Instructions:
In a wok, heat a little bit of oil. Add the washed cabbage, garlic, onion and broccoli and stir fry.

Heat a separate frying pan and add the salmon that has teriyaki sauce brushed all over it. Cover.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add the udon noodles and some water. I like the udon noodles tender and juicy. I also added worcestire, soy and oyster sauce. Cover and let the evaporating water steam the noodles. Stir often. Leave it for a few minutes uncovered so the soup can evaporate.

Serve the salmon over the udon/vegetable mixture. There shouldn't be much juice left since most of it should have evaporated.

Nica loved this dish which again, surprised me because he doesn't like salmon!

Make it again? Yup. But maybe add some carrots next time for more colour.
Rating: 8 out of 10.

Herb Crusted Salmon

With Ali's allergy to tomatoes and dislike to chicken and Andrea's dislike to beef, I decided to serve salmon at the party. I didn't really want to use the BBQ because it was so cold outside so I looked for those recipes I could do either in the oven or on the oven element. I found this recipe on the Internet:

Herb-Crusted Salmon
1/4 cup dried basil
1/4 cup dried thyme
1/4 cup dried oregano
1 teaspoon rosemary crumbled
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt

I didn't have all the oregano I needed (probably 1/8 of a cup) so I substituted parsley. I mixed all those ingredients, took one of the huge filets that I bought from Costco and sprinkled it all over and tossed it in the oven which had preheated itself to 400F.

I can't remember how long I left it in there for. I was suppose to leave it for 8 to 10 minutes but well, you know how these things get. I was directing someone how to make sangria and then I was drinking sangria and answering the door so the salmon got lost in there somewhere until I yelled, "Shit! the Salmon!" and checked on it. Thankfully, the herbs must have slowed down the cooking process because it still wasn't done. But I did notice it was a bit dry and slapped for my forehead and exclaimed, "Shit! The oil!". So I took it out, and tossed a little olive oil on top. The instructions say "brush with oil" but how on earth they do that and not have a gummy herb mixture on the salmon is beyond me. Anyway, threw that on and went about the other dishes.

Once it was out, Tricia helped me make the sauce. Here are the ingredients for that:
1 cup dry white whine
4 sun dried tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon lemon juice fresh
1 each shallot finely chopped
4 ounces margarine.

Again, we kind of cheated. The sun dried tomatoes were from the jar I bought from Costco and I didn't pick out just four, I just took a tablespoon. I have no idea if I actually put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice either - I just took half a lemon and used the rinder. Finally, I have no idea what shallots are - I think they're small little onions but I just used half a cooking onion and minced that instead. And by the time we needed the margarine, I couldn't find it in the fridge so we used butter and eyeballed 4 ounces.

The directions say:
"In a skillet combine the wine, tomatoes, lemon juice and shallot and boil the mixture until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Reduce the heat to moderately low and whisk in the butter, 1 bit at a time, lifting the skillet from the heat occasionally to let the mixture cool and adding each new bit before the previous one has melted completely. Sauce should be the consistency of thin hollandaise. "

Let me tell you: It was NOT the consistency of thin hollandaise. It was a lumpy mixture of tomato and onion. But it was good so we threw on the salmon and ate it anyway.

I think the salmon was a bit too dry and WAY too herb-y. A lot of the other recipes I read mentioned adding bread crumbs and this had none. Andrea thought it was good but again, thought it was too herby. Nica loved it even though he hates salmon. So mixed reviews. No one else complained and I didn't see any leftovers on their plate.

Would I make it again? Probably not.
Score: 6 out of 10.