Tasty Tilapia

Now admittedly, tilapia is not exactly a sport fish, and you won't find it on the cover of any fishing magazines (at least not the ones I'm familiar with). Though they are a popular fish to catch in California's Salton Sea, a fascinating body of water I'll discuss in another post someday...here's a photo of a little gal catching one there.

I suppose you could also sneak your rod into a tilapia farm and catch some that way - cichlids (of which tilapia is one) are supposed to be aggressive buggers, so you might have a good fight on your hands.

Anyway. The reason I'm featuring tilapia today because they're one of my favorite fish to eat, and they're one of the most ecologically wise choices you can make when buying seafood. Because they're farmed in a sustainable manner, tilapia help take the pressure off wild fish populations, many of which are in decline. (The same is true of farmed catfish, another favorite of mine.)

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite recipes for this tasty fish:

Bronzed Tilapia: A delicious recipe for fried tilapia filets featuring garlic, white pepper, cumin, basil, oregano and thyme.

Baked Tilapia with White Wine and Herbs: This calls for 1/4 pint of white wine. What you do with the rest of the bottle is up to you ;-)

Baked Tilapia with Tomatoes and Olives: Combines the tangy sweetness of tomatoes, the piquancy of green olives, and the spice of hot red pepper. Mmm good!

Batter Fried Tilapia: This is a nice, down-home classic that would be great for a fish fry.

Finally, a little tilapia history I picked up in my research - it's very likely these were the fish that figured so prominently in the Biblical story of the loaves and fishes. Tilapia were the basis of a substantial fishing industry in the Sea of Galilee in Jesus's time, and the Apostles whom he called upon to be "fishers of men" were most likely fishers of tilapia first. So now you know.