Steamed Ginger Tilapia

Forget about one hit wonders.  Let's talk about one pot wonders.  

No matter your lifestyle, we could all use more hours in the day.  Although a one pot meal won't add extra time to your day, it will reallocate time from cooking and cleaning to use as you choose...a quick workout, more conversation with your spouse, a little extra play time with the kid... You get my drift?   

Let me give you a visual.

Interested? 


Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
16 oz frozen broccoli (prefably organic)
4 pieces of tilapia
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons ginger


For this one pot recipe, you will need a double boiler with a steamer insert.

Start preparing quinoa by adding 1 and 3/4 cup water to a sauce pan.  When the water enters a rolling boil, add 1 cup of quinoa.  (I buy pre-rinsed quinoa.  If you do not, soak, drain and rinse prior to this step.)  Cover the saucepan, turn off the heat and let the sauce pan sit for at least 30 minutes.  During this time, do not uncover or remove from the cook top.  Just go live your life and forget all about it for awhile. 

Side note: Normally, I recommend flavoring the quinoa or at least salting. In this recipe, I find mixing the fish and broccoli sitting atop the quinoa flavors it sufficiently.  

After 30 minutes, uncover and fluff quinoa with a fork. 

Now, remove the quinoa from the sauce pan, placing in a container for use in the near future.  
Quickly rinse out the sauce pan and fill with frozen broccoli, adding water until it just covers the broccoli.  Bring the water to a steady boil.  Let the broccoli cook for 3-5 minutes.   

Place the steamer insert on top and lightly spray with cooking oil.  Align tilapia in the steamer and coat with soy sauce, sesame seed oil and ginger.  

Cover and let steam for about 5 minutes.  When done, remove the tilapia and drain the broccoli. 

To serve, place a generous scoop of quinoa onto a plate and top with one piece of tilapia, adding the drained broccoli to the sides.  

The One

I once read when you find a perfect recipe version of a staple dish, stick with it.  Don't keep trying to improve it.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, today I have found the one.  Oddly, it isn't even my own creation but it's too good not to share. 

For some time I've been working on perfecting a marinara sauce recipe.  I played around with different additions to sweeten and give it a standout taste.  I tried roasted red peppers then I replaced those with honey before moving onto dates.  I finally stumbled upon carrots. They were perfect, adding just the right amount of sweetness and depth.  But, the recipe still wasn't there yet.  

One day I stumbled across a tomato sauce recipe by Mario Batali in Food & Wine magazine. I was surprised to see that his recipe used carrots to sweet the sauce.  Who would have guessed... Mario Batali an American chef, writer, restaurateur and media personality and myself, mom, wife, worker bee, took a couple cooking classes at Sur La Table, would have the same idea. Of course,he pulled it off a little better than me... this time. 

Today, two things happened that motivated me to try Batali's recipe..... 

I received these unique looking carrots in my Wednesday produce delivery.

  

And, then I noticed the thyme plant in my herb garden is taking over; thanks to an extra wet spring.  

I tried the recipe, it was PERFECT.

For my perfect sauce, I've changed a few of the ingredient amounts but the heart of the recipe is Batali's.  It's really too good not to share......

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

4-6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/4 cup finely shredded carrot

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

Two 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes with their juices, crushed*

Salt

*I buy whole canned peeled tomatoes and work the whole tomatoes with scissors while still sitting in the juice in the can.  And, then I use a potato masher on any large ones that I see once transferred to the saucepan. 

In a saucepan, heat the oil until shimmering.

Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened and just starting to brown, 10 minutes. 

Add the carrot and thyme and cook, stirring, until softened, 5 minutes. 

Add the tomatoes and their juices and bring to a boil. 

Simmer over moderately low heat, stirring, until thickened and reduced to 5 cups, 30 minutes. 

Season with salt to taste.