Fish 3 Easy Ways and a Compound Butter

I love fish, but I used to be too intimidated to cook it at home.  It always seemed like a special "eating out" food.  Once I realized how quickly and easily fish could be prepared I got over my fear.  My parents used to complain that I made the entire house stink because of my late night salmon dinners.  Here are some really simple ways I've been eating fish lately.


First I baked a tilapia fillet.  It was frozen, and I was still sick last week and need something easy and quick.  I took the frozen fillet out of the freezer, placed it on foil, topped it with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and sliced lemon.  I folded the pouch and baked it at 350 F for about 20 minutes.  I served this over plain pasta with parmesan cheese.

Not very colorful, but carb-y and delicious

Next up: more Tilapia with Compound Butter.  I really don't know why I've never made compound butter before.  It is amazingly simple and so good.  I add capers, lemon juice, lemon zest, and pepper to softened butter.  Then I wrapped the butter in wax paper, formed in a log, and put back in the fridge to harden.  While the butter firmed up I dredged the fish in flour and cooked for three minutes per side in olive oil.  I then sliced the butter and placed on the fish to melt into a lovely sauce.  That's it!  

 The tilapia was served with sauteed red peppers and a baked potato.

Finally, scallops with the leftover compound butter.  I had frozen scallops, and I was trying to figure out how to cook them.  The package said I could boil them in the bag.  I had water on for pasta anyway, so I threw these in the water.  I ate these lovely little scallops with a pasta which I will share on the next post.