Top Of The World Tilapia

Good evening everyone and welcome back from a (hopefully) long weekend.  As I proved to our loyal readers (and myself) a couple of weeks ago, I can officially cook fish (One Year Ago Today...)  Now, fish is still a very tricky "meat" to cook.  Granted, it can have a simple premise, but if you get something off between buying it or cooking it wrong, it might mess up the dish completely.  Tonight, I wanted to try this fish recipe, yet I was somewhat unsure if the steps in the recipe would lead to a great result.  Would this fish dish turn out like it wanted it to?

The Recipe:  Tilapia Milanese
Original Recipe Found In:  Food Network Magazine, March 2011

What You'll Need:
(Adjusted to serve 2)
2 6 Ounce Tilapia Fillets
1 1/2 Cups Milk
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
3 Large Eggs
3 Slices White Sandwich Bread, torn into pieces
1/3 Cup Fresh Parsley Leaves
Finely Grated Zest of 1/2 Lemon, plus lemon wedges to serve
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

To begin the dish, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  In a large bowl, pour the milk and add two cups of ice.  Nestle the fillets in combination and let it soak for 15 minutes.  This milk bath helps the fish if was thawed out for 24 hours (like our fillets were.)  Although, there will be a slight film of ice over the fish, you can brush that off once the 15 minutes are up.  

The tilapia getting a good bath before getting cooked

Meanwhile, mix the flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper on a large plate and set aside.  Crack the eggs in a bowl and lightly beat, until well blended, and set aside.  In a food processor, pulse the bread, parsley, lemon zest, and 1/2 teaspoon salt until crumbs start to form, place on another large plate and set aside.  When complete, the order to coat the fish should be: flour combination, eggs, and bread crumbs.

Fish preparation assembly line

By the time all of the coatings should be done, the fish will need to come out of its milk bath.  One at a time, remove the fish from its bath and dredge in the flour, gently shake any excess flour.  Next, dip the fish in the beaten eggs, until well coated.  Finally, coat with the breadcrumbs, until both sides are nice and covered, and set the fillets aside.


Next, in a large skillet, heat the butter and olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat until the butter is melted and the oil is slightly popping.  Add the fish to the skillet and cook until golden brown, three minutes on each side.  While the fillets are cooking, line a baking sheet with foil.  After the fish is cooking on both sides, transfer to the baking sheet.  Pop it in the oven and cooked through, eight minutes.  Transfer to plates, serve with lemon wedges, and enjoy!

The End Result:

An incredibly flavored dish!  The tilapia cooked so perfectly, I had to use two serving tongs just to get off of the baking sheet, not wanting the fish to fall apart.  Cooking in the skillet before cooking in the oven, gave it a nice golden color and really enhanced the flavor of the fish.  I felt that the lemon wasn't even needed to top the fish.  But if you like a little extra zing in the tilapia, you can squeeze just a little bit on the fillet and it was taste amazing.  If you're afraid of extreme fishy flavor, you won't find it in this recipe.  Tyler mentioned this evening that this is at least our sixth(?) variation of breaded fish and (in my opinion) this is definitely one of the best!


That's all we have for you this evening.  Check back on Thursday when Tyler tries something completely new - hint: it's a dish we haven't tried EVER on the blog before.  Until then,

~Cheers!