This morning I was pretty smug and self-satisfied about coming up with a 7 minute breakfast that would include fish and veggies AND no frying pan to clean up. Then, I started looking up information about the fish I made and I was ashamed of myself. What did I make? Frozen tilapia that I had gotten from Costco. Yes, it’s cheap and super convenient (vacuum-sealed, individual portions that are skinned and de-boned) but like most things, it was too good to be true.
Hey, isn’t farmed tilapia one of the “best choices” on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch List? Well, yes, but ONLY if it’s farmed in the US and less than 10% of tilapia consumed in the U.S. is the domestic stuff. If the farmed tilapia is from Asia (which mine was), it’s on the red “Avoid” list because of the terrible pollution and weak management of the farms. Great.
But isn’t tilapia a great source of protein because it’s a fish with low levels of mercury and other contaminants? Yes, but it also has low levels of omega-3 fatty acids and high amounts of the pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. Ugh. That’s not good. In the future, I’ll stick to buying wild salmon, farmed trout, or canned sardines all are considered “best choices” and are high in omega-3 fatty acids.
So what am I gonna do with the 10-pack of frozen tilapia loins in my freezer? I’m hesitant to chuck it so when I do finish off the rest of my tilapia, I’ll chase it down with a shot of fish oil. How ironic is that?
After all this info, if you guys are interested in my quickie recipe, here goes:
Gather your ingredients: one frozen tilapia filet, tablespoon of butter, ground pepper, and Aleppo chile finishing salt.
Place the frozen filet in a microwave safe dish, dot with butter, grind on some ground pepper and sprinkle on the Aleppo chile finishing salt. Cover the dish with a lid and nuke for 4-5 minutes. Then let stand for 2 minutes. Serve with nuked frozen veggies.
I feel dirty for even posting this recipe but it did taste good.
