{"id":372,"date":"2008-09-22T00:51:16","date_gmt":"2008-09-22T05:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.wordpress.com\/?p=372"},"modified":"2008-09-22T00:51:16","modified_gmt":"2008-09-22T05:51:16","slug":"tilapia-with-avocado-and-tomato-relish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/2008\/09\/22\/tilapia-with-avocado-and-tomato-relish\/","title":{"rendered":"Tilapia with Avocado and Tomato Relish"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was raised on Mrs. Pauls Fish Sticks<\/a>, white salted cod, canned tuna, canned salmon (with those nasty little bones), and the occasional bit of fried shrimp.\u00a0 It was meat and potatoes..we had beef, chicken and pork — fish wasn’t really on the menu.\u00a0 So fish, and seafood were more foreign to me than anything when I first started really cooking.<\/p>\n

I clearly remember the first time I had “fish” when I moved to New York.\u00a0 It was grilled Mako Shark, with a butter filled with herbs drizzled over it.\u00a0 It was fantastic.\u00a0 I ate every morsel, and, if I had not been in a restaurant, I might have licked the plate ;) At different restaurants, over the years, I tried salmon, haddock, fresh tuna, halibut, fresh shrimp, and on and on.<\/p>\n

But I was almost afraid to try and cook fish myself.\u00a0 It was one thing to eat it out at a restaurant, where it was prepared properly, and tasted like it was supposed to, it was another thing to do it myself — I didn’t really know where to start.\u00a0 I first fried it, thinking I couldn’t mess that up too much — and I bought a piece of some fish the fish monger at my local market recommended to me. But this piece of fish was in the class I call\u00a0 “mushy” fish.\u00a0 Mushy fish is fish that is too soft for me — it’s like really wet bread, with a fish flavor to it, and, makes me gag.<\/p>\n

I stuck with the basic “meaty” fish for a long time — salmon, shark, tuna, halibut, etc.\u00a0 But I started to experiment with different fish, and different seafood a few years back, and have enjoyed it immensely.<\/p>\n

I discovered what kinds of fish I really do like — and they all, for the most part, tend to be “meaty”, as I mentioned above.\u00a0 But some, like the local version of tilapia<\/a> that I get, is delicately flavored, yet still has a firm texture to it, which I can handle quite well. Once I felt that I could actually cook fish, I started to try different recipes and different types of fish and seafood. It’s been a fun adventure, and one I look forward to learning more about as time goes on.<\/p>\n

The following recipe for baked tilapia was given to me by Mark, a friend of mine who thinks fish should be served 5x a week.. minimum.\u00a0 This is one of his favorite ways to eat it.\u00a0 The tilapia can be substituted with your favorite type of fish.<\/p>\n

The relish recipe isn’t really a relish, but more like one of my favorite meals ;)\u00a0 It’s really great served on the tilapia, though, and so is included here as well.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Baked Tilapia<\/h2>\n

6 tilapia fillets
\n2 tablespoons vegetable oil
\n1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder
\n1\/2 teaspoon pepper
\n1\/2 teaspoon basil
\n1\/2 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n

Heat the oven to 375F.<\/p>\n

Rinse and pat dry the tilapia.<\/p>\n

Mix the oil with the garlic powder, pepper, basil and salt, and brush both sides of the fish.\u00a0 Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet (or use a baking sheet lined with parchment paper).<\/p>\n

Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the fish is flaky and done.<\/p>\n

Tomato and Avocado Relish<\/strong><\/h2>\n

3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
\n2 avocados, peeled, seeded, and diced
\n1 1\/2 tablespoon oil, preferably olive oil
\nsalt and pepper to taste.<\/p>\n

Prep the tomatoes and avocados.\u00a0 Place the tomato and avocado into a medium bowl, adding the oil, and salt and pepper to taste.\u00a0 Mix together well.<\/p>\n

Serve the relish over the fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was raised on Mrs. Pauls Fish Sticks, white salted cod, canned tuna, canned salmon (with those nasty little bones), and the occasional bit of fried shrimp.\u00a0 It was meat and potatoes..we had beef, chicken and pork — fish wasn’t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[46,157,20,379],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-avocado","tag-fish","tag-meats-beef-poultry-fish","tag-tilapia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}