I’ve been thinking for a while about these tilapia fillets that have been in the freezer. The last time I fried fish I bought a big package from Sam’s Club, and ended up wrapping up three of the fillets and tucking them in the freezer. I like the tilapia from Sam’s because it’s good sized and has a great, firm texture to it. But three fillets is not quite enough fish for my family on a normal day. Certainly not if I fried it, but I had something different in mind, and today I just happened to find the time to channel my inner Iron Chef and do something completely different to the fish.
Warning: I don’t have a recipe. I plan to share the photos I have, and talk about what I did, but as to a recipe, well, channel YOUR inner Iron Chef and have fun with it. I had fun with it, and it was a lip-smacker for sure. Three of us cleaned our plates (with chopsticks no less!) and the fourth one, who tends to be picky ate almost all of his fish and made a hearty effort with the rest of it.
I started by making some Homemade Egg Noodles. It’s been a while, and as I whipped out a batch I was questioning why I don’t make homemade noodles more often. They’re just so delicious, and the texture is second to none. I used the spaghetti roller to roll the noodle dough into thinner strands, and had a few problems with the dough sticking to itself. In retrospect, my eggs were a little on the large side, and I should have compensated by using a touch less milk in the dough. But I still had noodles. I made them a few hours before I needed them, because I find they cook up better if they have a few hours to dry out on the counter.
With the noodles waiting, I turned my attention to a savory beef broth. I combined some beef bouillon with some dried onion flakes, some fresh garlic and some black pepper. I cooked that up a bit to soften the onion, and then I decided to take this broth in an Asian direction. I added a teaspoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of garlic-black bean sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger. After cooking a bit, I was almost happy with the flavor, but it needed some depth. So I quickly sliced some celery, julienned some carrot and finely diced some fennel and green bell pepper and added those to the broth. (What it really needed was some fresh mushrooms, but alas, we were all out.) About 20 minutes or so later, I gave it a taste, and it was spot on with the flavor I was looking for. I strained the broth so that there were no chunks at all in it. Just broth.
I placed my tilapia fillets in a baking dish and sprinkled them with garlic pepper, fresh lemon zest, and then a drizzle of sesame oil. They went into a 425ºF oven for about 15 minutes. While the fish baked, I brought a large pot of salted water to a simmer and then used that to steam some fresh broccoli.
Once the broccoli was soft, I dumped that into a bowl with a sprinkle of soy sauce, lemon juice salt and pepper, and then the fish came out of the oven. While I let that sit for a minute, I plopped my noodles into the boiling water and gave them a good four minutes- stirring frequently. When all was said and done, this dinner really was quick to come together if you don’t count the time it took to make the noodles or thaw the fish.
My plates began with a nice pile of homemade noodles. Then I ladled the clear broth over the noodles, and lined the bowl with the broccoli florets. The fish was laid on top of the noodles, and then for my plate I also added a nice scoop of homemade Mango Salsa.
This was seriously delicious. It was really, really good. It was also fun to eat with chopsticks, and then slurp up the broth at the end. There are things I would change when I make it the next time. One would be to add a crunchy element- maybe some water chestnuts with the broccoli. I would also plan ahead properly and pick up some lemongrass, fresh ginger, and some shiitake mushrooms to infuse the broth with, but really, by using what I had on hand, this turned out spectacular. I thought the heat in the mango salsa really made the dish too- and of course the salsa itself added a nice fruity flavor.
The whole family agreed that I should make this one again. Maybe the next time I do it, I’ll grab a pencil and paper and get an actual recipe down on paper.