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Tilapia


vengroff

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Whenever I see tilapia for sale, I can't help thinking of Mark Bittman's Fish book. He says it has a muddy taste and recommends avoiding it. But nowadays, I see it everywhere. Every fishmonger and supermarket fish counter seems to have a big pile of the fillets front and center. So, my question is, have farming techniques improved to produce a better tasing fish? Are wild specimens available, and if so are they any less muddy?

I suppose I should just buy some and try it. Can anyone recommend a good way to prepare it?

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It's not great. I recommend a simple saute with lemon and capers.

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Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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It's not great. I recommend a simple saute with lemon and capers.

Ditto. Unless you can get whole ones (head and tails), in which case, gutting and deep frying and serving with a really spicy, fried salsa is the way to go. My next door neighbors go crappy fishing all the time, and they have what I consider a "dusty" taste, but fixed this way, they are great. Lots of crispy bits and fire seem to mask the "dust."

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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snowangel, I agree about the frying and salsa. Though I would use siracha or some such chile sauce with it and some lemon grass.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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snowangel, I agree about the frying and salsa. Though I would use siracha or some such chile sauce with it and some lemon grass.

So would I, but when my neighbors show up with plates of this stuff, I'm not about to say no!

I reciprocate with homemade ice cream, gift certificates to grocery stores, whatever. They are unbelievably generous (he works at a slaughterhouse, and presented us with 5 lbs. of ribeyes for Xmas).

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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A few years ago, I was in Costa Rica, where tilapia is a "local" fish. We had never seen it, so my Dad ordered it at what is called a soda. (think a cafe, only much more "rustic"...) I am most definitely not a "fish" person, but I tried some of the tilapia and was immediately converted! For the rest of the trip, I ate it whenever I could.

Now, since tilapia has popped up here in the states, I've given it a try - and was immediately converted again. (Converted into not being a fish person once again... :hmmm: ) So, my advice is to only spend time with tilapia if its top notch.

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vengroff - your post has made me want to love tilapia again! Here is some info. I found from tilapia.com:(who knew there was a tilapia.com?)

"Since Tilapia absorbs flavor from the water its raised in, wild tilapia can have a muddy or inconsistent flavor while aquacultured tilapia with reliable water sources, the right feed, and carefully monitored growth will taste mild and sweet. It is important to buy tilapia from a company with a reliable water source."

The people at tilapia.com say that their growing farm ponds (in Costa Rica) completely exchange their water every 20 minutes. I guess this means that the tilapia doesn't absorb any "muddy" flavors. So, I think you are right - farming techniques have improved. I'd look into where the tilapia you'd be buying comes from first.

I also have come across some recipes. Instead of masking the flavor of the fish, I'd try to bring out that natural sweetness that a good tilapia fillet will have. Maybe a preparation with some citrus fruits would work out at this time of year. Or some other fruity olive oil or rspberry vinegar, etc. might work. But, then again, you can't go wrong with lemon & capers! :raz:

Hope all this is helful to you. For not being a fish person, I am spending too much time on this thread. :biggrin:

"Things go better with cake." -Marcel Desaulniers

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I first heard of tilapia when New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod (near Wood's hole, I think) began to promote growing them as a part of the self-sustainability movement in the seventies. even growing them indoors. Never have tried eating them.

Here's an entertaining short article by Gary Hirschberg on his experience at New Alchemy in those days.

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We eat tilapia regularly and love it. It is all farm-raised and very sweet and a lovely texture. Never noticed any sort of muddy flavour and we don't do anything more than pan-fry it.

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ts a very common fish in many Vietnames restaurants in the East End of London. Commonly steamed with ginger, garlic, spring onions or baked with a fish sauce and garlic paste smeared over. Both methods work pretty well for me...

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In many of our local markets, the tilapia is swimming in large tanks. You point to the one you want, and they drag it out and gut and filet it for you if you wish, or give you the whole fish.

I've never tried it because I've heard mixed reviews.

Mixed reviews which, it appears, continue in this thread.

So, I'm still uncertain..... :blink:

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I went through a phase where I picked up a piece of fish almost every night for dinner. The fish guy recommended tilapia, warning me that it was nothing special, but cheap and easy. It was all that. (I believe it's the most farmed fish in the world.) I would buy a few filets, dust them with seasoned flour or cornmeal and quickly saute them in some butter or oo. Nothing special, but cheap and easy.

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I ate tilapia for the first time a couple of weeks ago in Alabama, at Ruby Tuesday's no less. The menu said "white fish." Anyway, it was good. Very mild taste, soft almost delicate texture, kind of like perch or sunfish. They grilled it (not quite blackened) with cajun seasoning which may have over-powered the fish since there didn't seem to be a distinct flavor. I would eat it again for sure. From my limited understanding, they're farmed to avoid the muddy taste these days, kind of like what catfish went through a few years ago. I think you could treat them like you would any other white-fleshed fish (except something sturdier like cod or halibut) and be okay.

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The other night I poached a couple of tilapia fillets in fish stock, and served them over a ragout of baby artichokes, celery, and chickpeas. It was all done in order to use up some skordalia I'd made a few days earlier. In any case, couldn't taste the fish at all, but that was okay.

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This is my favorite tilapia recipe.

Mix cream cheese with quite a lot of parsley and dill. Spread this on the tilapia filets. Roll them up or fold them over. Sprinkle with lemon.

Chop and saute some shallots. Jullienne a quantity of zucchinni. Add them to the shallots and stir them around a bit. Add Knorr vegetable boullion disolved in water. Add the fish packets and cook them gently for only a few minutes. Serve with rice.

Hope you like it.

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My parents have eaten tilapia at least once a week for as long as I can remember. I always tried a little bit in an effort to understand the appeal, but I'm very sensitive to the muddy taste. The only way I could eat it when I was younger was to fry it until it was practically burnt and all fish flavour was gone. I find that most tilapia these days don't have much of the muddy flavour and I can eat more. I even ate half of a perfectly cooked, Chinese steamed version.

Little tilapia trivia (source: my mother): Tilapia is also known as St. Peter's fish and is supposedly the fish in the Jesus fish and loaves story.

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We almost exclusively make our stock with tilapia. A local market (and I mean local...within walking distance...in the suburbs) sells live tilapia at $0.59 lb twice a month. We always fry one (they are quite large) for dinner and sautee the other the next day (agree w/ lemon and caper). As wasteful as I am, I use the remanants and usually most of another fish to make quite good stock.

Rice pie is nice.

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Sometimes its got the muddy taste sometimes it doesnt. Had the same experience with catfish. When its not muddy I love Tilapia. I do it a few ways:

kosher salt

pepper

granulated garlic (at work...I like to get it done fast)

ground fennel seeds

dredge in rye flour

saute

kosher salt

pepper

garlic

chili powder

dredge one side with flour, eggwash and pecan crust

sear on top of the stove finish in oven

if I feel like heat I cajunize mayo with some spice and heat...chili powder, maybe a lil cayenne, paprika, a bit of lemon to thin it a bit.

Makes a nice sandwich, a nice sandwich (rest in peace Leo Steiner!)

If you want it on a plate, I tend to do an orange juice reduction (with recipe #1) with a wee bit of honey, and sundried tomato, naturally a bit of kosher salt, finished with some (in my case) soy margarine.

Edited by nyfirepatrolchef (log)
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Little tilapia trivia (source: my mother): Tilapia is also known as St. Peter's fish and is supposedly the fish in the Jesus fish and loaves story.

Are you sure? Saint-Pierre (Fr.), pez de San Pedro (Sp.), St Petersfisk (Norw.) is John Dory in British English according to Alan Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood. It has the name because of a large 'thumbprint' on its side where St. P pulled it from the water.

This is the beast.

John%20dory%20(Zeus%20faber).jpg

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Shirley King, in Fish, the basics says

A word of warning: Up to now [1990] the Food and Drug Administration has insisted thate these fish be called tilapia, but some (for instance, some of the tilapia bred in Israel) can slip by as Saint Peter's fish in supermarkets.  some tilapia from Florida, Texas, and Arizona are given names such as sunshine snapper and cherry snapper which are also not correct.

In Fish and Shellfish, James Peterson starts his definition with: "(also called St. Peter's fish -- not to be confused with Dory) ..."

Alan Davidson:

Tilapia a name applied to various species of freshwater fish in the genera Tilapia and Sarotherodon, especially S. mossambicus and S. niloticus.  Both belong to E. Africa, but the natural range of the latter extends northwards to the Nile and to Israel and Syria.

Finally: some months ago there was a piece on NPR about someone who is attempting to start a tilapia farm in a basement in the Bronx, NY. He stated that he believed it to be the wave of the future for low-income neighborhoods.

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Speaking of fish...

His Handsomeness brought home a frozen thang from TJ's tonight. Product of Viet Nam. Boucourti? Anyone familiar with it?

He dredged it in cornmeal and fried it up. Very mild and unfishy...maybe too much so. But with the leftover tartar sauce (HH's secret recipe) it will make a good sandwich tomorrow for lunch.

Boucourti?

Edited by maggiethecat (log)

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Several years ago when the so-called experiment, Biosphere II, was still functioning in the Arizona desert, we had the great fortune of visiting there. The "scientists" who were trying to reproduce a totally self-sufficient environment inside a glass dome had only one kind of fish they could raise and that was- you guessed it, tilapia. The ones they showed us that were raised in the Biosphere were about 5 inches long and looked as if you had to eat 12 of them just to feel moderately satisified. No wonder they were found to have been sneaking out for pizza. :biggrin:

Tilapia tastes like dirt. Yuck.

Edited by stefanyb (log)
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Speaking of fish...

His Handsomeness brought home a frozen thang from TJ's tonight.  Product of Viet Nam.  Boucourti?  Anyone familiar with it?

He dredged it in cornmeal and fried it up.  Very mild and unfishy...maybe too much so.  But with the leftover tartar sauce (HH's secret recipe) it will make a good sandwich tomorrow for lunch.

Boucourti?

http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/seafo...g0102/0001.html

According to this post, it's probably Pangasius bourcourti which is a species of catfish farmed in SE Asia but it's not in the same family as American catfish so it can't be marketed as such here. There was a thread about that controversy a few weeks ago. If you've ever been to a tropical fish store and seen something called either Pangasius or Irridescent Shark, it's a similar species.

tn_Paboc_u1.jpg

more info here: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSum...ry.cfm?ID=14112

How did it compare to regular American catfish?

edited to remove bad nomenclature and add the picture and additional link.

Edited by gknl (log)
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Finally: some months ago there was a piece on NPR about someone who is attempting to start a tilapia farm in a basement in the Bronx, NY.  He stated that he believed it to be the wave of the future for low-income neighborhoods.

They used to be fairly common aquarium fish, but I don't think I'd want to eat one that came out of a tank. Water quality isn't the same as in a pond. :wink:

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