Birthday Gourmet Nite: April 2008

To celebrate April's Birthday, Steph and Robyn made April take a break and enjoy. We missed April's cooking, for sure.

TILAPIA WITH ORANGE PECAN SAUCE
from Stephanie, courtesy Dixie (Steph's mom). Original recipe called for snapper, but the Tilapia is delish!! This recipe rocks and is SUPER easy - we've all made it again and again! Thanks Dixie!
2 tablespoons coarse grain Dijon mustard
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 pound Tilapia fillets (or snapper or rock fish fillets)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour for dredging
2 tablespoons unsalted butter ( I used less, just enough to coat the pan – about 1/3)

Garnish
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
Chopped resh parsley
1/2 cup pecans, lightly toasted

In small bowl, combine mustard and orange juice. Season fish with salt and pepper to taste. Dredge snapper in four, shaking to remove excess. In large skilled melt butter over medium-high heat. Add fish and cook until broned, about 3 minutes per side. Pour reserved orange juice mixture over snapper and stir, scraping up any browned bits. Cover and cook until fish is just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to individual serving plates and garnish with orange zest, parsley and toasted pecans.

Robyn made a strawberry salad that didn't turn out so well, so we'll save you from that.

For dessert, Robyn did a repeat of the White Chocolate Raspberry Tart, and learned the hard way how important it is to SPOON the topping onto the tart vs. dump the entire topping with juices; it got soggy. But it was delicious the first time!