Monday, September 29, 2014

Tilapia in Parchment

When we took Ryan to college, we went out for an early dinner after setting up his dorm room.  While proceeding down a major road, Ryan spotted a Red Lobster and exclaimed that he'd always wanted to try one, so in we turned.  He enjoyed visiting with the tank of lobsters (which are high in cholesterol), but we all chose something else for our meals.  I had a tilapia dish which was very nice, and proceeded to attempt to replicate it at home.  Here's my approximation:

TILAPIA IN PARCHMENT

Carrots, sliced and simmered for a few minutes
mushrooms
tilapia
artichoke hearts, quartered
scallions, chopped
grape tomatoes, cut in half
lemon juice
lemon pepper
lemon slices
butter or margarine

Simmer the carrots until they are about half cooked, or else they'll still be raw when everything else is done.  Cut a piece of parchment or foil about 12"x18" for each serving, and layer carrots, mushrooms (if desired) and tilapia.  Sprinkle the tilapia with lemon pepper and chopped scallions.  Top with grape tomatoes and artichoke hearts, drizzle a little lemon juice over the top, add 2 or 3 lemon slices, and add several pats of butter or margarine.  Seal the packets up, and bake at 375F until done, 20 to 30 minutes depending upon the amount of food in each packet.  Serve on a bed of rice (white or wild grain mix).



I enjoyed this because I could leave out whatever each of us doesn't like, and size each packet to the person for whom it was being prepared.  The downside is that it takes a little while to layer and seal each one, but that's the price you pay for not having to cook all the side dishes, right?  Everyone enjoyed it, so much so that I've cooked it twice in the past month.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

7 comments:

pam said...

This sounds yummy!! I love fish in parchment, it comes out so moist. I love the addition of artichoke hearts!

SissySees said...

The Knight won't eat fish. SIGH.

Anonymous said...

Always looking for a new way to cook tilapia. Thanks.

Big Dude said...

Looks delicious Margie and pretty healthy as well. Bev had it in a restaurant many years ago once with Monkfish and once with salmon - she loved them but can't remember if we ever tried it at home - need to change that now that we have your recipe.

Two French Bulldogs said...

Wow awesome
Lily & Edward

Two French Bulldogs said...

Awesome! We love fishies

~~louise~~ said...

So you hit Red Lobster while you were in town, lol...I haven't been there in quite a while. I do love the tank though:)

I've been staying away from Tilapia because of the cholesterol but I love the notion of putting fish in parchment. I can make mine spicy and leave Marion's bland and boring, lol...Thanks for sharing, Marjie...