Foodie Files – Grilled Tilapia Salad

My Internet search tells me that fishing as a practice dates back to almost 40,000 years. However, when you are talking about a fish like Tilapia, the more suited term is not fishing but fish farming or aquaculture since Tilapia is amongst the most commonly farmed fish with an annual production of about 1,500,000 tons with an estimated value of US$1.8 billion.

Tilapia were one of the three main types of fish caught in Biblical times from the Sea of Galilee. At that time they were called musht, or more commonly "St. Peter's fish". A common Bible story says Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, which scholars surmise were tilapia.

Known in the food business as “aquatic chicken” because it breeds easily and tastes bland, tilapia is the perfect factory fish; it happily eats pellets made largely of corn and soy and gains weight rapidly, easily converting a diet that resembles cheap chicken feed into low-cost seafood. However, as compared to other fish, farmed tilapia contains relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils that are the main reasons doctors recommend eating fish frequently and hence its benefits are arguable.

OK, enough of National Geographic and now turning to the Food Channel, I like Tilapia because it is probably the easiest fish to cook and doesn’t leave your kitchen stinking once you are done cooking. And then of course I have the simplest ever recipe for doing this fish.

It’s basically a contemporary version of what people would have done 40,000 years ago (get the fish on fire to grill it). Considering that I am spared the rigors of having to go hunt for my own fish, this is what I do.

1. Buy some Tilapia fillets from the local supermarket. Grab some greens for the side, some onions, tomatoes or whatever you like.

2. Smear some ginger garlic paste, some pepper, turmeric, red chilly powder or any sort of ‘Tandoori Masaala’ packet that you can find in the market (Doesn’t matter if the label says, Tandoori chicken masala or Tandoori Tikke or Tandoori lizard masala – you can hardly tell anyway). Set aside for a while. (Depending on what you are blessed with – take your dog or baby for a walk or play a round of Call of Duty on your XBox to kill some time. If you don’t have any, then you should not be wasting time cooking at home. Go get a life or maybe a XBox).

3. Get a frying pan on the stove and pour some cooking oil in. Now, beat the hell out of some garlic cloves and throw them in the pan. Add in salt, pepper, turmeric, chilly powder, coriander powder to taste.

4. Cut the onions in strands or rings as you like and stir fry them. The idea is to retain some crunch on them and not get them all soggy.

5. Grill the fish. Pre-heat the grill and all and turn the fish once of twice till you see it go a little rusty brown.

6. If you don’t have a grill. Just grab a wire net and get it on fire with a pair of tongs like a caveman. If you can’t do that either, just stir fry it in the same pan, you did the onions in. (Yeah, yeah go grab it from the sink). The idea is to not eat the fish raw (with all the mercury in it).

7. Get some lettuce, pickles, cut some tomatoes, drop the fish and pour those onions on it. Top it with some lemon juice.

8. You can alternately, just get everything in the picture below in a bun or slices of bread and make a grilled fish sandwich as well.

ENJOY !!!