Fast and Easy Summertime Food- Cornmeal Crusted Fish with Black Eyed Pea Salad

One of the most common search phrases that leads people to this little blog here is either "Cornmeal crusted Tilapia" or "Cornmeal Tilapia". Which the other day reminded me that I had plenty of fish in the freezer and hadn't used this recipe in awhile. I thought I would make and share the recipe again, since it seems to be such a popular one. And on the side I decided to make a really great salad. This is one of the first recipes I tried when Josh and I decided to try eating better, and I still love it. It's really delicious, first off, but it's also really quick to toss together; the corn and bell pepper make it particularly great for the summer. Who wants to spend forever in a hot kitchen during the summer months anyway? Not me. So a quick fish fry up and a no-cook salad is a sure-fire combo for summer cooking success.

Cornmeal Crusted Fish
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4


1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons paprika
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 (6-8 oz. each) skinless tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons olive oil

• In a shallow dish, combine cornmeal and paprika; season generously with salt and pepper. Separate fillets into thick and thin sides. Dredge each piece in cornmeal mixture, patting it on to coat completely.
• In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Cook as many pieces as will fit (without crowding) until golden brown and firm, about 2 minutes per side for thin pieces and 4 minutes per side for thick ones. Transfer to a plate; sprinkle with salt, if desired, and cover loosely to keep warm. Wipe skillet with a paper towel. Repeat with remaining oil and fish.

Black Eyed Pea Salad
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 10 oz. package frozen corn, thawed
1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Coarse salt and ground pepper

• In a medium bowl, whisk mustard, vinegar and oil. Add all vegetables. Season with salt and pepper, toss to combine. Serve room temperature or slightly chilled.

My notes: I used trout that we had in the freezer from my father-in-law, so don't feel like you have to limit yourself to tilapia. I also used this recipe to make some great fish tacos before. Summer puts me in a mood for Mexican, so I'll probably be making those again soon too.

Marinated Shark Fillets

To be honest I don't know anything about shark. I know people buy shark steaks, but how are sharks caught? Is it a terrible, unsustainable practice? Our friend Chris was telling me this weekend that people cut the dorsal fins off sharks and throw them back in the water to die, just for making shark fin soup. That hardly sounds like a decent way to do things. So, let's be clear, just in case there is something disturbing and/or improper about consuming shark. My father-in-law caught this shark while fishing on the coast. We didn't spend exorbitant amounts of money on a brutally caught ingredient. (Is shark expensive? It seems like it would be.) And it wasn't a big majestic predator of the sea, but some little sharky who was fool enough to bite on his line. I'm not one to look a gift fish in the gills, so to speak, so I decided it was time to cook it up. I have never made shark before, and my father-in-law suggested grilling it. To make things a bit more interesting I went looking for a marinade for the fillets and had something with soy sauce in mind when I started my perusing. I ended up choosing a marinade from Everyday Food. What else, right? I went with this marinade mainly because it offered the option of substituting ground ginger for fresh. I like fresh ginger, but I so rarely use it that it seems wasteful to buy it. I'm sure fresh would make it better, but this was a good marinade all the same.

Marinade for Shark Fillets
Recipe from Everyday Food; enough for 2 pounds














1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup rice-wine vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons sugar

• In a small bowl, whisk together rice vinegar, canola oil, soy sauce, ginger and sugar.
• Pour marinade over fish and let sit for at least 1 hour.

My notes: I quartered the measurements for the marinade, since I only had two fillets. I soaked the fish overnight in the fridge, turned it in the morning, and then cooked it for dinner when I got home. I grilled it for a few minutes on each side in a grill pan, and served it with roasted asparagus and brown rice. Very tasty. Father-in-law is going to the coast in a few weeks, maybe I'll get lucky and he'll catch another shark!

Fish Tacos

Last week I made fish tacos with some great trout that my father-in-law caught on one of his frequent fishing trips. It's great having such an outdoorsy father-in-law, especially when you reap the rewards of his hard work. To prepare the fish I cut the fillets into small chunks. I used the Cornmeal Crusted Tilapia coating for the trout and then fried them in a small amount of olive oil over medium heat for no more than 2 minutes per side. If your fish chunks were thicker you would need to increase cooking time. I let the fish nuggets drain on a paper towel while I got the rest of the taco fixings ready. I also chopped up a quick and easy pico de gallo- two plum tomatoes, 1/4 medium red onion, appx. a tablespoon of chopped cilantro, juice of half a lime, and a pinch of coarse salt. This is what I did, but really just eyeballing what's going into the ball and making sure that there is a good ratio of flavors will get you a good result. This was the first time I'd made pico de gallo and it was delicious. We had our fish tacos on warmed corn tortillas, with the pico, shredded green cabbage, and some sour cream. Josh added bit of cheese to his tacos as well. I have some more fish in the freezer and I'm thinking I need to make this meal again very soon.

Cornmeal Crusted Tilapia

That is what our Monday evening looked like, and let me just say that it was even more beautiful in person, not to mention delicious. Please, don't try to nibble on your computer screen, it won't taste as good. it had sadly been awhile since Josh and I sat down together at our own table and ate dinner together. We rarely eat dinner together as it is during the week, since he works late most days. And then we are frequently distracted by the talking boxes and laptop computers. But Monday night I made us the lovely meal above and we sat down and enjoyed it, just the two of us. Well, and David Bowie spinning round on the turntable. I'll fill you in on the guacamole later, this post is about the main course. I bought some frozen tilapia fillets at Target a couple weeks ago and really wanted to use them. These turned out to be great. They thawed easily, were easy to handle, and easy to cook. Definitely going to get these again, I can't imagine how invaluable they could be for last minute meals. Especially this meal which consisted of so few ingredients, it's almost diabolically simple. And let's remember, that's me saying it. The girl who has trouble with almost everything in the kitchen, ha.

Cornmeal Crusted Tilapia
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4












1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons paprika
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 (6-8 oz. each) skinless tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons olive oil

• In a shallow dish, combine cornmeal and paprika; season generously with salt and pepper. Separate fillets into thick and thin sides. Dredge each piece in cornmeal mixture, patting it on to coat completely.
• In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Cook as many pieces as will fit (without crowding) until golden brown and firm, about 2 minutes per side for thin pieces and 4 minutes per side for thick ones. Transfer to a plate; sprinkle with salt, if desired, and cover loosely to keep warm. Wipe skillet with a paper towel. Repeat with remaining oil and fish.

My notes: I halved the recipe so I could only prepare enough fish for the two of us, and I still had a little bit of cornmeal mixture leftover. Really, I think it's pretty clear just how easy this recipe is. And it's equally delicious, so give it a shot! I'll be back with a post about the guacamole-love-of-my-life.