Pecan Crusted Tilapia

This week's recipe can really be with any fish, but I use Tilapia (all. the. time.) I'm honestly not a fish person, and tilapia isn't fishy. It's not really anything. Which I like.

Anyways, on to the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 TBS lemon juice, divided
1 TBS olive oil
4 fish fillets

Optional side dish:
1 cup instant brown rice
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1 cup small broccoli florets

It's really funny- every time I begin a post on this blog I type out the ingredients and realize how many mistakes I made in preparing the dish. For starters, I had no idea how to toast the pecans, so I just used them as they came in the bag. And then the parsley? Forgot it completely. Not that it adds any taste to a dish, right?

Once I gathered all of the ingredients it was on to the preparation. Just a quick side note, this is what I had to step over while I was cooking. Sweet, darling little boy. Must you take the zip lock bags out of the box one by one?

But you don't read this blog to find evidence of how few "real" toys I aparently have for my child. On to the directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375ºF. Combine pecans, cheese, parsley, 2 Tbsp. of the lemon juice and the oil. Place fish in single layer in shallow baking dish; spread with pecan mixture. Drizzle with remaining 1 Tbsp. lemon juice.

BAKE 10 to 12 min. or until fish flakes easily with fork. Meanwhile, cook rice as directed on package, substituting broth for the water and adding broccoli to the boiling broth along with the rice. (Yeah, I didn't do this. Cheesy rice from the box was much easier!)

SERVE fish with the rice mixture.

So this is what my creation looked like.

And this is what it looks like when you add the parsley for some color, and make the way-too-healthy-to-taste-good brown rice and broccoli.
Either way, it was a good dish. I suppose next time I'll throw the pecans on a baking dish and put them in the oven until they get properly toasted. And I probably won't make cheesy rice and corn on the same night. Too much yellow food, and that's just freaky.

Enjoy!

Coming up next week: Orange Glazed Pork Chops

Angel Hair Piemontese

All right, before I post the recipe, I have to make an admission. I didn't make the recipe as it was written. I got home from work, realized I had no walnuts to brown, no leeks, and no fresh basil. Essentially- no pesto sauce. So I cheated. I used the jar stuff.
It didn't ruin the recipe, I promise! In fact, it saved time! But here are the ingredients in case you're one of those goodie-two-shoes types who likes to follow directions.

Ingredients
1 box (16 ounces) BARILLA Angel Hair
2 cups (lightly packed) fresh Italian parsley
3/4 cup toasted walnuts
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
2 red bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
2 leeks, thinly sliced crosswise 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 ounces Fontina cheese, cut into small cubes

COMBINE parsley, walnuts, thyme and garlic cloves in the bowl of a food processor and blend until finely chopped. With the machine running, gradually add 1/2 cup of oil, processing until well blended. Season the pesto with salt and pepper to taste.

HEAT the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.

ADD the bell peppers, leeks, and the finely chopped garlic. Sauté until the bell peppers are crisp-tender, about 15 minutes.

BRING a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the angel hair pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often to prevent the pasta from sticking together, about 4 minutes. Drain, reserving 2 cups of cooking liquid.

TOSS the pasta with the pesto, bell pepper mixture, and cheese in a large bowl to combine, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten.

SEASON the pasta to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

So aside from totally ignoring the parts about making the pesto, it came out pretty good. The only suggestion I'll make is to use some other kind of cheese. The fontina was great and melted easily. It tasted great- at first. But as I had more and more bites it developed a bad aftertaste. The cheese was too sharp. In similar recipes for piemontese style you use mozzarella instead. I think that may be a better choice.
Overall, a colorful dish, but I doubt I'll make it again, at least not like it's written.

Spiced Game Hens

We're on to our second new recipe. So far, so good. We're already two whole weeks into the new year and I've kept my resolution. So today's new recipe was spiced game hens. Jacob was in the kitchen to help. Seriously- how cute is this kid? Right. Here are the ingredients:

1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 24-ounce Cornish game hens
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

Problem #1- After 4 days in the refrigerator the damned things are still half-frozen. No time to marinate like the directions say, all time is spent thawing the suckers out.

And we're thawed. On to the directions:

1. In a small bowl combine lemon juice, olive oil, paprika, salt, coriander, turmeric, pepper, and garlic. Set mixture aside.
2. Using a long, heavy knife or kitchen shears, halve Cornish hens lengthwise. Cut through the breast bone of each hen, just off center; cut through the center of the backbone. If desired, remove backbone of each hen.
3. Place game hen halves in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour lemon mixture over hens. Seal bag; chill for 2 hours, turning bag once.
4. Remove hen halves from bag and place, cut side down, in a 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Pour lemon mixture from bag over top. Pour broth around hens in dish. Season chicken with additional salt and pepper.
5. Roast, covered, in a 375 degree F oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue roasting for 20 to 35 minutes more or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh of each hen registers 180 degrees F. (The thermometer should not touch bone.)

Problem #2- These puppies needed WAY more than 40 + 20 minutes of cooking. At the appropriate time, when the hens were SUPPOSED to be done, the pasta has been cooked, the breadsticks are browned, and the green beans have been perfectly steamed. Which means nothing now that the main course still needs an additional 20 minutes.

Problem #3- Adorable kid from the beginning of this post is now well into bedtime. Mark takes him up for a bath while I babysit the hens. Hens still cooking. Mark comes downstairs, covers up the breadsticks, pasta and green beans while I go upstairs to feed the now-cranky kid his last feeding of the night.

Problem #4- By the time the damned hens are finally done, the formerly cranky, now God-awful miserable kid is refusing to sleep.

I go upstairs. I come down. He cries. I have a couple bites of my dinner. I go back upstairs, put the pacifer in his mouth, come back down stairs. Still crying. This goes on 3-4 more times. Mark goes upstairs.

15 minutes pass.

I go to the bottom of the stairs.

"Mark?"

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to put him to sleep?" (kid is screaming in the background)

"Well you have to come downstairs! You can't sit there all night and stroke his head until he falls asleep!"

"Says who?"

"Says Ferber!"

"Who's Ferber?"

"I don't know, but they call it the Ferber method. And I just spend the last 20 minutes practicing it and you're ruining it all by spoiling him right now!"

Needless to say, between the damned hens taking so long to cook, the baby being a total brat, and the accompaniments being cold, this was not a home run. In fact, the hens didn't have any spiced taste to them at all.

But then again I was supposed to marinate them for 2 hours. I don't know. Not convinced that would have made the difference. Please try and let me know if you have any more success.

Week 1 - Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

It's the first recipe of the year!!! Ok, so I'm a week late. Sort of. But there were only 3 days in the last week (or is the first week?) so I didn't start my resolution to cook a new recipe every week until today.

Anyways...

Here is the first new recipe I tried. I'm not a big soup fan, but my husband is and I always try to keep him happy (yeah, I'm pretty sure he's going to choke in disbelief when he reads this). I honestly am not a Chicken Noodle Soup fan but this recipe didn't sound to bad. It's pretty much just a chicken stir-fry in soup form. In a crock pot. Confused yet?

So here's the basic recipe:

Ingredients
· 6 cups water
· 2 3-ounce packages chicken-flavored ramen noodles
· 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
· 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
· 1 16-ounce package frozen broccoli stir-fry vegetables (I used fresh veggis- broccoli, red pepper, snow peas and carrots)
· 1/4 cup sliced green onions (2)
· Crushed red pepper (optional)
· Teriyaki sauce or soy sauce (optional)

Directions
1. In a 3-1/2- to 4-1/2-quart slow cooker combine water, seasoning packets from noodles, and ginger. Add chicken and frozen vegetables.
2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat setting for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.
3. If using low-heat setting, turn to high-heat setting. Stir in noodles. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes more or until noodles are just tender. Stir in green onion. Ladle soup into bowls. If desired, sprinkle with crushed red pepper and serve with teriyaki sauce.

Makes 6 main-dish servings (9-1/2 cups).

The verdict:

Soy sauce is a MUST. It needs the flavoring. However, soy sauce on top of the ramen packets makes for one salty dish. Maybe low sodium soy sauce would be better?

I also think using oriental flavored ramen would be just as good. And then soy sauce wouldn't be necessary.

Mark LOVED the dish. I thought it was ok. But I'm not a soup person, so I'm not the best judge.

I would suggest this dish to a friend. If you make it please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought.

Next week: Cornish Game Hens