Sauces | vmac+cheese

MacGyver Me This: Pan Fried Tilapia with Lemon Butter Sauce

Posted on May 20, 2010 by vmacandcheese

Welcome to MacGyver Me This, what I hope will be an at least bi-weekly Thursday feature here at VMAC + Cheese! With the fun (and — if you don’t mind my patting myself on the back — success) I had with Susannah’s empty pantry dinner in our inaugural MMT post, I couldn’t wait to do it again. Luckily, Reena sent in a question last week — and some follow-up photos to boot.

Her conundrum? What the heck kind of sauce to make with tilapia for an easy weeknight meal. My answer to these kinds of issues: go straight to the lemon and herbs! It simply can’t be beat, and this basic technique and ingredients can be used for other items like shellfish or even chicken.

Check out the end product below, and please consider this your very open invitation to email me your MMT challenges. You can always find me at vmac56 {at} gmail {dot} com. Whether you’ve been hanging out on this site for a while, or are just passing through, any and all challenges are okay by me.

Ready? Go!

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Filed under: Fish/Seafood, Food, MacGyver Me This, Main Courses, Recipes, Sauces | Tagged: sauces, seafood recipes, tilapia recipe | 2 Comments »

Quick, easy, impressive (with recipes galore)

Posted on August 29, 2009 by vmacandcheese

If it wasn’t already apparent from recipes and mentions on this here blog, as far as mealtime meats go, I’m far more partial to pork and seafood than I am beef or chicken. Just typing that, I already know I’m turning into my mother. She was the same way: pork chops and broiled fish graced our dinner table far more than sirloin steaks or grilled chicken ever did. Sure, we had the occasional grilled steak now and again, but knowing my mother’s palate as I do now, I think she preferred the mildness of the other white meats. Chicken? I think that was just too boring for her.

Recently though, Joe and some of his co-workers went in together on part of a cow. Have you heard of these awesome programs? Actually, the concept and practice of animal/meat sharing has been around for a while (see one this very early VMAC + Cheese post), but I still think it’s great. If you have enough room in a freezer, you, individually, can purchase part or all of a farm-raised animal, thus eliminating the need for a middle man (your grocer), thereby lowering your cost on high quality meat and giving you a freezer full of cuts to use over the course of a year or so. More logical for us big city folk without garages and extra freezers is to share part of an animal with friends (or co-workers). So that’s what we did. We invested in part of a 98% grass fed* steer, and were able to bring home a bunch of ground beef (which I turned into burgers, meatloaf and meatballs), sirloin steaks (steak salads, tacos), stew meat (obvious) and a large tri-tip, which the processor had labeled as London Broil.

[*NOTE: Why 98% grass fed? (more…)

Filed under: Food, Mexican, Other meats, Recipes, Salads, Sauces | Leave a Comment »

A sign of the times

Posted on November 7, 2008 by vmacandcheese

In an effort to save what little money I have and get back in the kitchen, I’ve been cooking at home a lot lately. Sometimes my relationship with cooking goes through weird phases; make no mistake, I always love to eat, but there will be times — days, or even weeks — where I just can’t muster up the energy to get in the kitchen and make something spectacular. This is when we end up eating a lot of salads, pasta, crudites and sandwiches from the deli down the street. Eventually, there is a house revolt and I’m forced to make margaritas and Mexican food for a certain someone.

But earlier this week, even before the enchiladas and our new president (!), I made a meal completely evocative of fall, and of my childhood: grilled pork chops with mustard sauce and roasted acorn squash. My mother used to make that exact dinner when I was a kid, except her approach was a bit more minimalist. She liked thinner cut shoulder chops, and would broil them with nothing more than a bit of salt and pepper. The squash was cooked in the microwave.

I told her about this dinner a few nights ago, during one of our bi-weekly chats. “Hmm,” she said greedily, thinking over the components of the meal in her mind, “I sure wish I could’ve been there.”

Me too, mama.

For the chops: (more…)

Filed under: Food, Main Courses, Mama, Recipes, Sauces, Squash, The pig | Leave a Comment »