Light and Easy Weeknight: Pan Seared Tilapia with Parmesan Broccoli Pasta

Pin It This dish literally took 30 minutes to make, partial clean up included.  After feasting on real Southern fried chicken yesterday, this was a good dish to recover from the weekend.  It was light, yet flavorful.  The nuttiness of the parmesan perfectly complements that similar note on the broccoli.  And tilapia is just so good even with a simple preparation.  It also doesn't cost much.  The splurge in this dish would be good parmesan cheese because it makes the dish. Although more expensive, with good, flavorful parmesan you actually won't need as much.  I'm not saying that you should use the $25 per pound Parmigiano Reggiano, but grating a slice from a less expensive wheel should be better than the ones that come from a green can!  These are the times when I miss living by Arthur Avenue where I can get good olive oil and cheese from Teitel Bros. Italian grocery for a very reasonable price.

Pasta

1/2 pound of pasta (I used rotelle.)
1/4 c olive oil
about 5 cloves of garlic  peeled and slightly pounded
1 lb broccoli florets, chopped
2 tsp unsalted butter
salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
red pepper flakes (optional)

Drop the pasta in the water before making the sauce.  You will be done making the sauce before pasta is even al dente.

In a sautee pan, heat olive oil over medium fire.  Add garlic and pepper flakes and let the flavor infuse the oil.  Watch as you do not want this to burn.  Turn the garlic cloves over to let the other side brown.  Fish out the garlic as soon as the other side starts to brown.  Add the broccoli.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cook until slightly tender but with a bit of crunch left.  Add the butter.  When pasta is done cooking, use a strainer to take the pasta out of the water and put directly into the sauce.  Use some of the pasta water to add more liquid into your sauce.  Re-season with pepper (I suggest to taste after you've added the cheese if you need more salt).  Add grated parmigiano reggiano and toss.  When serving, you can drizzle a little bit more olive oil and grate some more cheese onto the pasta.

Tilapia

2 T olive oil
2 tilapia fillets
salt and pepper

I was making the tilapia while making the pasta so that they all finish cooking at the same time.

Heat the oil over medium fire.  Season both sides of the tilapia with salt and pepper.  Sear the tilapia about 4 minutes each side. 

Frankenstein Enchiladas

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So it's turning out to be Mexican week.  Mostly because the ingredients were on sale at my grocery store.  And having made tacos last Sunday and chili burritos last week, I had some leftovers.  So to change it up a bit, I decided to put leftovers and extra ingredients from different dishes together in one dish--hence, the post title.  In my last post, I said the pulled chicken tacos were my new favorite Mexican dish to make. I change my mind.  THIS is my new favorite.  Best of all, it was made solely from ingredients that I already had.  One of the things I've learned from watching all these Chopped episodes is even if we're having leftovers, they can be transformed into a whole new dish.

Oh, and just a note, I am completely aware that what I call Mexican is far from authentic. So the recipes I have here are my take on easy homemade Mexican.

They don't look too pretty with my tortillas breaking, but they were GOOD!

leftover pulled chicken from the taco recipe
leftover turkey chili (will include the recipe below)
leftover corn tortillas
leftover sour cream (I use fat free)
leftover shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend, cheddar, and mozzarella)
fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 375-degrees.  Spread some sour cream over the each tortilla.  Add the pulled chicken and top with cheese.  Put just enough to still be able to roll the tortilla.  Place rolled tortilla flaps side down on a greased tray.  Use the turkey chili to top as the enchilada sauce.  Top with cheese.  Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese melts.  Serve with chopped fresh cilantro.

Turkey chili:

1 lb. ground turkey (I use lean--93/7)
about 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can of tomato sauce (Depends on how thick or soupy you want this, actually)
1 medium onion, diced
chili powder
ground cumin
ground cayenne
ground paprika
1 tsp cocoa powder (I use dark cocoa powder)
salt
pepper

Sautee garlic and onion in a just enough oil to brown the meat (You really don't need a lot).  Add turkey and brown.  Transfer to a slow cooker.  Add tomato sauce, liberal amounts of spices and blackpepper, moderate amount of salt and cocoa powder.  Cook on low for at least three hours to develop the flavors.  Serve as a soup, over rice, in a burrito, or as an enchilada sauce substitute!

Post-Cinco de Mayo Celebration: Pulled Chicken Tacos

Pin It With my last (hopefully) CFA exam looming, I have been unable to find the time away from studying.  But in an effort to keep my hordes of readers (and by hordes, I mean, three) interested, I'm writing about my new favorite Mexican dish to make at home. I've made the barbecue pulled chicken from a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (I can't seem to find it now, though).  I thought I'd put a Mexican twist by adding my standard spices. It was delicious!  And I made enough to do chicken and cheese enchiladas (along with some leftover turkey chili) tonight.  But that will be for another post.

 For the Chicken:

4 chicken breasts (can be frozen)
1/2 c molasses based barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
1/2 c Italian salad dressing
water
ground cumin
chili powder
onion powder
granulated garlic
ground paprika
ground cayenne (this is very spicy, so use according to your taste)
black pepper

Line the chicken breasts on the bottom of a slow cooker. Add barbecue sauce and Italian dressing.  To make sure there's sufficient liquid covering up to half the chicken breasts, add water.  Add seasonings. Basically, cover the exposed part of the chicken breast with the seasonings.  Use thongs to turn the chicken over to make sure that all sides get in contact with the sauce and seasoning.  Cover and cook on low for at least 3 hours if chicken is thawed and around 6 hours if frozen. Pull or shred the chicken and mix so that it absorbs the juices.  The chicken will be so tender, you will not have a hard time shredding it.  This, of course, can also be done on very low heat on the stove top as long as you're planning on staying inside the house for the duration of the cook time.

Taco:

soft corn tortilla (Love the flavor of this and I discovered they don't have as much sodium as the flour tortilla.  The ones I get actually had no sodium!)
greens (can be shredded cabbage or lettuce.  I used baby spinach just because it was all I had)
salsa (in this case, I used my ever dependable mango salsa.  Recipe in the burrito post.)
sour cream
shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend, but use any cheese you want.)

Warm the tortillas in a 300-degree oven for about 3 minutes on each side.  I like to layer my taco as such:  sour cream, greens, chicken, salsa, then cheese. We also like to add some Frank's Red Hot sauce for an extra punch. Serve and enjoy!