TILAPIA with ORANGE SALSA

Tilapia with Orange Salsa - 2

Being a personal chef, my grocery cart looks pretty strange sometimes for a single guy in his twenties, especially when the guy behind me is buying a couple frozen pizzas and a six pack. I was making banana nut muffins for a brunch the other day and had a lot of really brown, overripe bananas in my cart. The checkout lady apologized, “I’m sorry these bananas look so terrible. I’ll give you a discount.” I explained that I actually wanted them that way because they make better muffins, but she gave me the discount anyway.

Another time, I had to make a huge salad for a client and was buying several bags of mixed greens. The lady was like, “You must really like this brand of salad.” I didn’t feel like explaining, so I told her, “Yeah, it’s all I eat… I’m on an all-roughage diet.” I told her the truth eventually.

I admit this story has nothing to do with tilapia with orange salsa. I’m sorry I have no interesting stories about tilapia or orange salsa.

Tilapia with Orange Salsa - 3

RECIPE
2 tilapia fillets
1 T olive oil
a few slices of shallot and onion
2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
2 parsley stems
2 pieces of parchment paper

1 orange, just the flesh, or “supreme”, small dice
1/4 of a red onion, small dice
1/4 of a jalapeno, small dice
1 T minced cilantro
1/2 a lime, juiced
1 T olive oil
salt

Tilapia with Orange Salsa - 1

1. Preheat the oven to 450°.
2. Cut a piece of parchment a little longer than the fillet and about 3-4 times as wide.
3. Top the fish fillet with salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, a few slices of onion/shallot, a smashed clove of garlic, and a parsley stem. These are some aromatics to flavor the fish, but you’ll remove them later.
4. Fold the parchment from the top and bottom to cover the ends of the fish, and then fold it the other way. Tuck it in pretty snugly like you’d tuck in a baby. You wan’t a good seal, so the steam doesn’t escape. This ensures the fish won’t dry out. If the parchment puffs up like a bag of potato chips when you bake it, you did good.
5. Bake on a tray for 12-15 min.
6. Meanwhile mix the orange, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime, salt, and olive oil in a bowl.
7. When the fish is done, cut open the pouch, but watch out for the steam. It likes to burn the bottom of your wrist. Remove the aromatics.
8. Garnish with the salsa.

I served it with some purple jasmine rice. The purple rice with orange salsa is my inner Sun’s fan coming out, although it comes out less now, since they traded Steve Nash.