Fish and I have had a difficult relationship in years past. I blame it on my mom (like most adults do with any "problem") and her love of feeding us fish sticks as children. To this day when I smell fish, I'm taken back to those sticks of fishy mush coated in heaven knows what covered in ketchup so that I could choke them down.
Gross, right? That's what I thought about all fish.. or at least I did until recently. C LOVES fish, including their mushy sticks, and since I've cut most of the meat out of his diet already, I figured I couldn't deny him another source of healthy, lean protein simply because I didn't like it based on childhood memories of frozen, processed fish. Enter Tilapia. It's a mild (read non-fishy fish) that can be used in lots of different ways. We generally broil it with some kind of topping, but this past week I decided to try something a little different. I had leftover low-fat buttermilk in my fridge from making a dessert for C to take into work, and I also had some potato flakes in my pantry from the last time I made sticky buns (yes, there are potato flakes in my sticky buns... what's it to ya?), so I decided to make potato encrusted tilapia. It's pretty simple, and pretty darn tasty too!
First I mixed the leftover buttermilk (maybe 1/2 c) with a clove of chopped garlic and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I lightly seasoned the fish with salt and pepper and let it soak in the buttermilk for a few minutes. Once it was done introducing itself to the buttermilk, I dredged it in some potato flakes, popped it into a hot pan that had some olive oil in it. Let that puppy sizzle on each side for 2-4 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish) and serve!
I paired it with a spinach salad that had brown turkey figs and a raspberry pomegranate vinaigrette. Yum!
