Tilapia (also called tilapia in another way) is considered a smart fish. Her behavior is very reminiscent of our pets, but this does not stop anyone from enjoying her wonderful taste. It relates to freshwater fish from the Cichlid family. Her body is compressed on the sides, not very long, but high. Color - one-color, gray-silver, sometimes even green. This fish has a large head with large round eyes and long fins.
Its homeland is Asia Minor, it was from there that man spread tilapia throughout Africa and Asia. There are a large number of different types of it.
Many people on our planet appreciate this fish for its excellent taste. Today, many farms in different countries with great pleasure breed tilapia. Experienced chefs from all over the world can offer you a wide variety of recipes for cooking this fish, because you can not only cook it, but also stew, bake, fry in a pan or grill.
Tasty dish
Baked tilapia in the oven, you should really like not only the taste, but also the ease of preparation. Her meat contains quite a lot of protein, as well as vitamins and a whole set of trace elements. Pregnant women and children should definitely eat this type of fish. Unless, of course, there are no contraindications and individual intolerance.
There are some researchers who claim that tilapia meat is very unhealthy because it has an incorrect ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (1: 3). But these experts did not take into account that the fish contains a small amount of fat, which means that it can not do much harm. In one hundred grams of tilapia, only about 96 kilocalories. Having talked a little about this mysterious form, we can proceed to describe recipes that will make it possible to prepare delicious dishes from it.
So how to cook tilapia in the oven? Simple enough. But do not forget that it has a very low fat content. Therefore, if you want to make it juicy, then add water, wine or any sauce to it. And when you bake, cover it with foil. Let's look at simple, but rather interesting recipes.
What is necessary?
To cook tilapia in the oven, we need:
- 300 g of tilapia meat;
- tomato juice or paste 60 ml;
- garlic - about four cloves;
- one large onion;
- olive oil (2 tablespoons will be enough);
- dried oregano seasoning - two teaspoons;
- sunflower oil - one tablespoon;
- black pepper and salt to taste.
Cooking process
How to cook tilapia in the oven? We make the marinade: chop the garlic finely, cut the onion in half rings and combine with vegetable oil and mix. Add garlic to the resulting mass. Tilapia meat is coated with marinade, as well as salt and pepper. We spread the fish fillet in a cooked form, oiled. You should alternate everything with onions, pouring a tomato. Preparing tilapia fish in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
By the way, instead of tomato juice or tomato, you can take any other sauce. Other vegetables are well combined with other vegetables, which ones to use - decide for yourself. Cooked fish can be eaten as a separate dish. It goes well with any side dishes. This recipe, a tilapia fillet in the oven, will appeal to all your friends and household. They will be pleasantly surprised by the taste of this dish and, most likely, will ask you to reveal the secret of cooking.
Fish and potatoes
There are many other recipes on how to cook tilapia in the oven, for example, with potatoes. Despite the many ingredients, the process of creating a culinary masterpiece is very short. In order to cook the dish "Tilapia with potatoes in the oven", you will need:
- Naturally, the fish itself. It is advisable to choose fillets (meat, cleaned of bones and ridge), about one kilogram.
- Potato - 800 grams.
- Tomatoes - 0.5 kg.
- Two tablespoons of sunflower oil.
- For an amateur - cumin, one teaspoon will be enough.
- As much ground paprika.
- Of course, salt is to taste.
To prepare the marinade, you need garlic, four cloves. In order not to use vinegar, take citric acid (about 4 tablespoons), as well as herbs (parsley), olive oil, cumin, paprika and salt to taste.
Cooking process
How to cook tilapia in the oven? For starters, make a marinade. To do this, mix all the components with a blender so that we have a homogeneous mass. The fish fillet must be washed with warm water, and then salt and pour with the finished marinade. And now you need to leave so that everything is saturated, for about twenty minutes. We clean the potatoes, wash them and cut them into circles. We put it in a pan and sprinkle with cumin, salt, paprika, as well as pour oil and mix. Then put everything that we have on a baking sheet.
Now we cut the tomatoes into rings and lay them on top of the potatoes. Cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Cook vegetables at 180 degrees for twenty-five minutes. After everything is baked, we take out the baking sheet from the oven and put the tilapia on the potatoes with tomatoes, pour it with the marinade that we have left, add some oil and send the fish back to the oven for fifteen minutes. This is an independent dish, you can add some fresh salad to it.
Another recipe
Tilapia baked in the oven turns out to be very tasty, and most importantly - healthy! Many lovers of fish dishes often experiment with cooking containers. Someone uses pots, pots, and more. But the most delicious and juicy fillet is obtained using aluminum foil
This shortens the cooking time, and the dish is better baked. Now we will tell you another cooking option, it is called Tilapia in Foil. We will cook again in the oven.
What do you need?
So we need:
- fillet - 0.5 kg;
- one bell pepper;
- two tomatoes;
- greens to give the dish a special flavor;
- spices - a pinch;
- two tablespoons of sunflower oil.
Cooking process
Wash and dry the tilapia with napkins. Pepper and tomatoes cut into medium-sized cubes. Chop the greens and mix everything, then season with oil. The form where we will cook the fish, covered with aluminum foil and grease with sunflower oil. And only then lay out tilapia. Put vegetables on top and cover the dish with foil.
Now you need to put the form in the oven, heated to 180 degrees, for about thirty minutes. In order for the vegetables to brown and leave excess juice, it is necessary to remove the foil ten minutes before the dish is ready.
Tilapia baked under a carrot-tomato hat
This is a simple and tasty dish. It is often served in a cafe, but you can cook such a dish at home. This is not particularly difficult to do. So let's get started.
To prepare this dish, we need:
- three pieces of tilapia fillet;
- one carrot;
- one medium onion;
- ½ lemon (squeeze juice out of it);
- three tbsp. tablespoons of ketchup.
Cooking process
The first thing we do is peel and finely chop the onion. Then fry it in vegetable oil until a golden crust appears. Then wash and peel the carrots, three on a coarse grater, fry, simmer for three minutes under the lid. After that, add tomato ketchup to carrots and onions, mix everything well. At this time, sprinkle the fillet with lemon juice, pepper, salt. Then we put the fish in a pan, pour a little vegetable oil, and on top of the tilapia we spread the carrot and tomato mass with a hat and send it to the oven for about 25 minutes. Mashed potatoes are a great side dish for such a delicious dish.
Tilapia with cheese
This tasty and juicy dish will appeal to those who do not really like fish. The combination of products creates an amazing flavoring composition.
We will need:
- 300 g of tilapia;
- 100 g pineapple (canned);
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sunflower oil;
- spices to taste;
- 100 g of cheese;
- 100 ml syrup from canned pineapples;
- 100 g of onion (leek);
- 200 ml cream (35% fat).
Cooking process
We take the form, coat with vegetable oil. Cut the fillet in half, put in a bowl, salt, and pepper. Cut the onion rings. Sprinkle them with a fish. Grind the pineapple rings to make small pieces, then put them on the fillet (two). Then three cheese on a coarse grater. Then sprinkle them with pineapples. Then mix the syrup with cream and water our dish. We send the dishes to cook in the oven for 35 minutes.
Conclusion
You have learned several recipes for making tilapia in the oven and now you will delight the whole family with delicious dishes from this wonderful fish. Enjoy your meal!