Lydia's on a Budget

Lydia's on a Budget

I have recently, as we all have, had to make changes to my budget. I no longer have Satellite TV so can no longer learn my cooking skills from Food Network or Bravo. In this financial crisis I have learned what a waste of money that whole DISH Network nonsense was to begin with. All I have ever needed for TV viewing has been some rabbit ears and TaDa ~ I have FOX for Football and American Idol; CBS for March Madness and Sunday Morning; NBC for Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams; and PBS for everything else. PBS does so many things well, there is no doubt. But the cooking programs that air are really the best. I don't care what Anthony or Guy tell you.

One of my all time favorites over the years has been Lydia's Italy. I learn so many things from her the least of which to always pour some wine while cooking. Recently she had an episode where she shared this Dover Sole w/ lemons and capers recipe and I remember being fascinated by the fact that she ate the lemon slices with her bites of sole at the end when she was oohing and ahhing at her finished product. I also remember she had went to the docks pick out her fish. I don't have that luxury here; I just have Ingles. Ingles always has three types of fish on hand – Salmon, Tuna and Tilapia. I long for the day I can go to the market and ask my fish monger for his freshest catch, a las that is not today. I choose Tilapia and set out to create my own version of Lydia's dish. Its the Sharyn's Danielsville rendition if you will. Tilapia is delightfully inexpensive and adding spinach and tomatoes rounds out a very healthy dish, even if there is a little butter and cream.

Here is what you will need for four servings:

4 Filets of Tilapia

1 lemon super thinly sliced

1 ½ tblsp capers

8 oz of dry white wine

1 tblsp ground peppercorns

1 tspn salt

1/3 cup olive oil

1 large clove garlic; minced

4-6 Campari tomatoes; quartered

½ cup heavy cream

1 tblsp diced shallot

black pepper and salt

½ stick of butter

12 oz of fresh spinach

First, rinse and pat dry your Talapia filets. Then, lather in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, ground pepper, the dry white wine, and the capers.

I let this sit in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

Then, you can throw in the tomatoes and re coat with some olive oil and salt and pepper just on the tomatoes.

Then place in a 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. Or until it looks like this, nice flaky filets:

Then, you can just take the spinach and top; the heat from the fish resting will help wilt the spinach.

After a few minutes, you are ready to plate.

I then use the left over sauce from the cooking pan to make a beurre blanc sauce by adding the butter, then the cream and continually whisking - this takes less then a minute. You could also reserve 3-4oz of the wine and reduce with a tspn of vinegar and your shallots, then add the butter and cream to that and eventually add it to the juices from the fish. Including the juices from the cooked fish provides the best flavor:

Pair it with some good bread for drinking up the sauce and you will wonder why you don't always dine in Sharyn's Danielsville!