Breaded Lemon Cream Tilapia

It's no big secret that fish and I are not friends.  I mean I can be friends with a fish.  Especially if they are cute and squishy.  In other words, to quote the sharks from Finding Nemo, "Fish are friends, not food."

via

Ok, so I like white fish, aka krab.  I mean that stuff tastes like crab, not fish.  So it doesn't even count. 

Tilapia and salmon are edible, if they are smoked on a plank of wood over the grill.  Except our grill doesn't like to heat up when it's windy.  Lately, we've been having sustained 20+mph winds with gusts in the 40mph range.  That grill isn't even going to remain vertical, let alone maintain the proper heat.

So that leaves me with a sad face when my family wants to have fish for dinner over Lent.

Then I found this recipe for Breaded Tilapia and Lemon Cream Sauce from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake.  

The breading was nice and crispy without having to fry it in copious amounts of oil.  I wound up using half regular breadcrumbs and half panko.  I was mistaken regarding the amount of panko I had in the pantry.  I don't know if using regular breadcrumbs in addition to the panko accounted for this crispy breading, or if it was just luck. It could have been that the fish was dry before it was dredged in egg and crumbs.  Who knows!

Blockette and Mrblocko only used the lemon sauce sparingly, but I drenched my fish in it.  It was so good it covered any fish smell or taste.  I thought the lemon sauce was so yum-a-riffic that I even dipped carrots in the leftovers the next day. 

For the record, I ate my fish with way more sauce than in the picture.  I wanted you to be able to see the fish in the photo.  I added loads more sauce after I took the picture.  One could say the fish was "swimming" in lemon cream sauce.  :::groan:::

We ate our fish with a baked potato.  I didn't feel like messing with chopping or buying special potatoes like the recipe over at Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake suggests.  We had russets already so I used those.  They are topped with Italian Blend seasoning and Italian blend preshredded cheese.  That flavor combo went well with the lemony fish.

Blockette had been begging for green beans, but Mrblocko does not like cooked green beans.  As a compromise, we ate them raw with bean dip.

I'd make this meal for dinner again, even outside of Lent.

Lemon Cream Breaded Tilapia from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake
2 T flour
1 t lemon-pepper (I used Penzeys Florida Seasoned Pepper)
1 cup Panko bread Crumbs (I used half regular bread crumbs and half panko)
1 egg
4 tilapia or other white fish fillets (I used 3 frozen, defrosted tilapia as I didn't want leftovers)
4 T vegetable or olive oil for frying

On plate, mix flour and seasoning. On second plate, place bread crumbs. In bowl, beat egg. Pat fish dry.  Coat fish with flour mix. Dip into egg then coat well with bread crumbs. In a large skillet, heat oil. Add fish fillets, and cook 3 min on each side til golden brown.


Lemon Sauce
3 T butter
2 T flour
1 1/2 c milk
1/4 t onion powder
1/4 t sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

On low, melt butter in med pan. Add flour.  Stir in flour.  Cook for 1-2 min so flour develops nutty taste.  Whisk constantly so it doesn't burn.  Slowly add in milk.  Whisk constanly as you are slowly adding the liquid.  This will help prevent lumps from forming.  On med heat, stir til sauce thickens.  Remove from heat. Add lemon zest and juice.