Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 23: Easy Recipe from Grandpa

My grandpa never used to cook when my bubbe was still alive. She was the master of her domain, and the kitchen was her domain. A talented cook and baker, I remember growing up to her famous warm fruit pies and my favorite frozen lemon torte. However, after my bubbe became ill and eventually died, a hidden passion came from my grandpa's kitchen and his easy 30-minute meals could probably rival Rachel Ray in my opinion. This is one of them that my sister made for me tonight along with my mother's easy salad dressing for the side salad:

Easy Cheesy Baked Tilapia Filets with Green Salad
Makes 2-3 servings


3 filets of frozen tilapia (or fresh, but the cooking time will be reduced if you use fresh filets)
2 tbsp light mayonnaise
2 tsp paprika
1-2 tsp minced garlic (optional--I love garlic so I pretty much add it to everything, haha, well almost everything--definitely not dessert; I'm not that daring)
2 tsp parmesan cheese
dill for garnish (my touch)
3 c. chopped Romaine lettuce
6 mini-heirloom tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
1 c. broccoli slaw (I found mine prepared already at Trader Joe's because I'm lazy like that)

Mom's Famous Salad Dressing: 
The ratio is 1-2-3, so my sister just made enough for our salad with some left over since we don't like to drench our salad with dressing.

1 tsp mustard (my sister used whole grain because that's all we had but feel free to use regular mustard too, although I'd recommend French mustard instead of the yellow mustard you use on hotdogs)
2 tsp Balsamic vinegar
2 tsp EVOO (or regular olive oil)


1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a foil packet, place fish fillets side by side.
3) Mix together parmesan, garlic and mayonnaise in a bowl and then smear it onto the fish fillets.
4) Sprinkle paprika onto the filets, the closing the foil packet afterwards.
5) Bake fish for about 20 minutes (*Note: If fish is fresh, decrease time to about 10 minutes.)
6) Meanwhile, mix together salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
7) Rinse off lettuce and broccoli slaw in a colander.
8) Rinse off the tomatoes into small pieces and add it to the salad.
9) Serve salad next to the fish on a plate and top it with about 1 tbsp of dressing.

Enjoy and Bon Appetit!

2 comments:

  1. It's 1-2-3 - 1 mustard, 2 Balsamic vinegar and 3 oil. Otherwise, it looks delicious. It's better to defrost the tilapia first. That way, you run less risk of overcooking! Love you. Mom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The dressing did taste a bit 'mustardy' haha, so it makes sense adding the extra tsp of olive oil. But I don't usually defrost the fish (well at least the tilapia) and I never seem to overcook it. I will however use that pointer when cooking the frozen ahi tuna again because I did end up overcooking that by accident. So thanks for the suggestion!

      Delete