mmmm I have 4 lbs of chinese tilapia fillets from wally world.

[Kali]

How should I cook them?

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. Baked with

cajun seasoning, a side of red beans and rice and either a tossed salad or fried okra. Some cornbread - and not the stuff out of the box either. Strawberry shortcake for desert. Iced tea to drink - or maybe something a bit stronger. Mmmmmmmm.......

[Kali]

2. I'm pretty west of there, all I have are pintos. And they are pretty soft leftovers.

What is in "Cajun seasoning," exactly? I can do some kind of rice with tomatoes, chilis, onions, and celery. The only veggie I have right now are zucchinis and broccoli.

Always have iced tea. For once I have some other choices as well! :evilgrin:

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. Cajun seasoning

is available commercially (e.g., Tony Chachere's Original Seasoning or Zatarain's Seasoning).

If you want to make your own mix the ingredients (with typical ratios) might include:
salt to taste
cayenne pepper (5x)
black pepper (3x)
onion powder (3x)
garlic powder (3x)
chili powder (3x)
thyme (1x)
sweet basil (1x)
bay leaf (1x)

[Kali]

8. ah so the thyme, basil and bay are what changes it from Mexican?

I don't have a whole lot of experience with food from that region although it sure sounds good when I read recipes. I need more tasting so I know what I'm doing cooking!

[flamin lib]

4. Tilapia are very mild flavored fish, almost to the point of having no

flavor. You need to add something to jazz up the taste like the cajun seasoning or maybe fresh tarragon lemon slices and salt & pepper. 400 degrees 5 minutes until the fish flakes.

Rule of thumb for baking fish: 400 degrees for 10 minutes of each inch of thickness.

[Kali]

9. tarragon is another flavor I'm not very familiar with - will have to time

getting some more fish with getting soem fresh herbs - hard for me to just run to the store for missing ingredients as I am about 20 miles away.

[Tab]

5. I'm not usually a fan of the pre-made store-bought stuff

(not saying that's what you have), but my local store sells a chipotle-lime tilapia, not overly spicy, coated with what seems to be bread crumbs, presumably chipotle and lime (duh) and possibly red pepper. It's actually pretty damned good.

Four pounds, however, is quite a bit. I'm not sure about the "Chinese" angle - is that just where they were caught or is it a different species / variant of Tilapia?

[Kali]

7. the chinese/wallyworld thing was me tempting fate

I don't go there if I can help it but the husband does (and I confess to encouraging butter, tea, and coffee purchases there as they are considerably cheaper - how is that for moral waffling?). We tried tilapia for the first time a few weeks ago and it was at least edible (if a bit flavorless as mentioned) so he saw it on sale and bought a big box of them. They were farm-raised and I can just imagine the condition of the water!

We ended up just baking with butter, salt pepper and lime. Pretty boring, but being desert dwellers we don't get much fish so still a bit of a treat.

[Tab]

11. I actually have found I really like Tilapia

As a rule, and I live on the east coast, so I don't get a wide variety of fish, and sushi/sashimi aside, I like trout but I usually don't bother, and I mainly do salmon. I do salmon really well, but sometimes you can only go so far. I tend to keep away from the heavy white fish (e.g.: haddock). But I have to confess an attraction to catfish, and from there I have moved on to tilapia. In a odd way, it's like tofu (which I personally hate, but anyway....) not a lot to share in and of itself, but very accepting of whatever you want to imbue it with. Like I said, my local store (it's a northeastern chain) sells some premade stuff at the seafood counter (and meat counter) and generally I don't bother, but I really like their rendition of the chipotle/lime tilapia. They've got it coated with something - I haven't broken it apart yet, and actually it reminds me of panko (Japanese coating) but is most likely bread crumbs with red pepper and other stuff. Regardless, tilapia takes to it really well. Many general fish species do not, but this one lends itself to absorbing whatever it's exposed to.

[hobbit709]

6. I tried this one from an earlier posting

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan-it was damn tasty.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=236&topic_id=40693

[Kali]

10. that sounds good enough to eat plain without any fish!

:rofl: