The Complete Guide to Cooking Tilapia: Simple, Easy Home-Style Dishes
Tilapia has a delicious flavor and tender flesh. Whether braised in soy sauce or cooked plain, it tastes great and suits all ages. It also has few bones and no small intermuscular spines, making it suitable for a wide range of people. Below, the editor recommends several common ways to cook tilapia!
Braised Tilapia in Soy Sauce
[Ingredients] Tilapia, scallion, ginger, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, MSG, garlic
[Method] 1. Wash the fish clean and score crosshatch cuts (this helps it absorb flavor better). 2. Heat oil in a wok, add scallion, ginger, and garlic, and stir-fry until fragrant. 3. Add the fish and lightly pan-fry, then add dark soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and water. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, reduce the sauce, and remove from the wok. 4. After removing from the wok, sprinkle with shredded scallion and shredded chili pepper, and it is ready.
Pan-Fried Tilapia
[Ingredients] Tilapia, minced garlic, cooking wine, salt, soy sauce,
[Method] 1. Slaughter and clean the tilapia, add cooking wine and marinate briefly. 2. Put it in an oiled wok and fry thoroughly over low heat. 3. Before removing from the wok, add some salt, soy sauce, and minced garlic and simmer for another two minutes. It is then ready.
Tilapia Braised in Soybean Paste
[Ingredients] 1 tilapia (about 500 g), ginger, garlic, 2 tbsp soybean paste, a pinch of salt
[Method] 1. Heat oil in a wok and sauté the ginger until fragrant. 2. Pat the tilapia dry with kitchen paper, put it in the wok, and pan-fry over low heat until golden brown. 3. Flip and fry the other side until golden brown as well. 4. Place white scallion sections on top of the fish and add 2 tbsp soybean paste. 5. Add clean water until it covers half of the fish. 6. Add 1 tsp salt. 7. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn to low heat and simmer until only a little sauce remains. 8. Plate it, top with shredded green scallion, and eat while hot.
Steamed Tilapia
[Ingredients] 1 tilapia, appropriate amount of salt, appropriate amount of scallion, appropriate amount of ginger, appropriate amount of steamed fish soy sauce, appropriate amount of vegetable oil.
[Method] 1. Ask the fish seller to prepare the fish. After getting home, make a few diagonal cuts on the belly of the fish and one cut on each side of the back for later use. 2. After the steamer water comes to a boil, put the prepared fish in the steamer, place a few slices of ginger on the surface, and steam for 10 minutes. After steaming, drain off the excess liquid. 3. Put chopped scallion and chopped ginger on the surface of the steamed fish. 4. Heat vegetable oil in a wok, using a little more than for ordinary stir-frying. Once the oil is hot, pour it over the surface of the fish. 5. According to taste, drizzle steamed fish soy sauce over the surface of the fish, and place cilantro on the surface for garnish.
Sweet and Sour Tilapia
[Ingredients] Tilapia, salt, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, water starch.
[Method] 1. Check the fish once to make sure the scales on the belly, back, and around the fins are all scraped clean. Remove all the messy membranes and skin, and also make a cut with a knife near the spine inside the belly and rinse the blood vessels clean. Score the fish body with a few cuts, wipe it dry inside and out with kitchen paper, and rub on a little salt. 2. Heat the wok, add oil, put in ginger slices and scallion sections, and use a spatula to press the ginger slices and spread the oil evenly over the bottom of the wok. 3. Put the fish in the wok to pan-fry. Do not move it. When one side is almost done, gently shake the wok a couple of times so the fish skin stays as intact as possible, then turn it over and continue frying the other side. 4. Add sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and water, cover, and simmer. Turn it over and simmer until the thickest part can easily separate the fish flesh from the bones. 5. Thicken with water starch and reduce the sauce over high heat.
Water-Boiled Tilapia
[Ingredients] Soybean sprouts, scallion, red chili, 1 packet spicy fish seasoning, 6 tilapia (adjust the quantity according to how many people you are serving), ginger slices, garlic slices, dried chili sections, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, chicken powder, vegetable oil
[Method] 1. Wash the fish clean and cut each into two halves lengthwise for later use. 2. Wash the scallion clean and cut into 2-inch sections, slice the red chili diagonally, remove the roots of the soybean sprouts, wash them clean, and set aside. 3. Heat vegetable oil in a wok, add ginger slices, garlic slices, dried chili sections, and Sichuan peppercorns, and stir-fry until fragrant. Then pour in the water-boiled fish seasoning and stir-fry together a few times until fragrant. 4. Add an appropriate amount of clean water and bring to a boil to make the soup base. 5. Transfer the soup base to a large stainless steel basin and continue cooking (for convenience in serving directly at the table). Add the soybean sprouts and bring to a boil, then add an appropriate amount of salt and chicken powder to season. 6. Put the two fish halves into it and continue cooking. 7. Cook until the fish is done, place scallion sections and shredded red chili on top, and it is ready to serve.
Foil-Baked Tilapia
[Ingredients] 1 tilapia, appropriate amount of shallot, appropriate amount of scallion, appropriate amount of garlic, appropriate amount of ginger, appropriate amount of black pepper powder, appropriate amount of cumin powder, appropriate amount of salt, appropriate amount of barbecue sauce, appropriate amount of oil
[Method] 1. Remove the entrails of the fish and wash it clean for later use, and prepare the seasonings. 2. Wrap the fish together with the other seasonings in foil. 3. Place the wrapped fish on a baking tray, put it in the oven, and bake at 200 degrees for 10 minutes, then flip and bake for another 10 minutes. 4. It is out of the oven, and the taste is still pretty good.