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This is one of the easy dishes that I love to make.. it involves pan-frying..my favorite way of cooking fish or anything before I really learned how to cook. :) This particular dish is also inspired by one of my favorite chef, Wolfgang Puck ( I miss his show..he makes me smile/laugh..love his accent).
He prepared this with Tilapia filllet with the skin on which was fried crispy..hmmn imagine that…if you haven’t had fried tilapia with crisp skin before, well you are missing something..it’s super yummy, it’s one of my favorite food, crispy- on- the- outside-flaky- on- the- inside fried fish.
My mom makes a similar dish called escabeche using whole fish. She loves to prepare this for us when I was a kid and I remember not liking it because it has strong vinegar scent and taste and it’s a little spicy for me ( I only began liking hot and spicy food when I got married).
I didn’t like the taste of onion and ginger but my mom had this habit of feeding us something we don’t care much about maybe in the hopes of making me and my siblings to eventually like it too..well, she often succeeds but with this one, it took her long years of trying with me, I was a picky eater as a child and I used to hate the smell of vinegar.
I began to appreciate onions, ginger, vinegar and other strong spices when I began taking real interest in cooking and recreating my mother’s dishes. I missed them so much when I was in college and more so when I got married.
TILAPIA FILLET WITH GINGER BALSAMIC SAUCE
inspired by Wolfgang and my mom’s fish escabechenote: this is one of my no-recipe recipes, but don’t worry it’s hard to ruin this, you can always adjust the amount of seasoning to your liking as you cook the sauce /glaze and make it your own ;)
I used skinless Tilapia fillet as you can see in the photo because it’s the only one I can find at the time I wanted to make this dish.. next time I’ll ask to have a fresh one fillet-ed with skin on.
Ingredients:
tilapia fillet (with skin preferably, or any fish you want)
flour seasoned with salt and pepper (1/2 cup flour with 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper and some cayenne powder is a good way to start)
ginger root, minced
onion, minced
balsamic vinegar
soy sauce ( I used kikkoman)
red pepper flakes (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
honey
extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)First, heat some EVOO in a frying pan (about 2 tablespoons) on medium high heat; while waiting for that, pat-dry fish fillet with paper towels and dredge fillet in flour. Gently lay each fillet on the frying pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side.
Set aside cooked tilapia on a platter and on the same pan, add some oil if there’s none left from frying, about a tablespoon. Saute minced onion and ginger until onion becomes transparent.
Add about 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, lower heat a little and let it cook for a minute (to get rid of vinegar-y taste) before adding in some soy sauce, about the same amount as the vinegar, add some water.
Season with salt and pepper to taste and let boil then lower heat to simmer and cook until the mixture has almost evaporated then and add enough water to your liking; add a little if you want a stronger or concentrated glaze, simmer for about a minute..
Add about a teaspoon of honey and simmer for about half a minute to finish the dish and pour glaze over the cooked tilapia. Sprinkle sliced spring onions for garnish.
Serve with hot rice and enjoy! :)
Thanks for reading and Have a nice day! :)
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Olive
Nice post….very useful information…..
Thank you for sharing. Cheers!
Olive, this is gorgeous…its like a shot from a gourmet magazine…and i just can totally imagine the amazing flavor of the balsamic combined with the ginger..a brilliant combination i need to try out…
Beautiful dish. I love tilapia.
I am drooling over the ginger balsamic glaze, I can imagine how much flavor it offers to that delicious tilapia fillet
Lovely dish, haven’t fried Tilapia before, normally I steam it with preserved bean paste and bird’s eye chillies.
Wow, the ginger balsamic glaze sounds amazing with tilapia! Yum!
Now, this is one lovely fish dish!! So lovely!!
I love the ginger & balsamic beautifully combined in here!
Lovely dish, I do not cook fish often because I do not have many ideas on how to go about it. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I’m allergic to fish, but the sauces sounds like it would be wonderful on chicken as well!
Not tried fish with balsamic glaze before. I guess I can do this with fish, cherries and a glaze. Nice!
I love anything with lots of gravy and this sounds like my kind of food. And great recipe too! Happy Holiday to you & your family! Cheers.
Hi Kristy! :) Happy Holidays to you and your family too..I can feel definitely feel Christmas coming..it’s in the air!
@Brad – you won’t be sorry, it’s really delicious :)
@CheapAppetite – baking sounds good, I’ll give it a try sometime ..Thanks :)
@Janice – thanks, hope it’ll turn out great! :)
Looks great, I grew up with Tilapia and love this recipe. I can’t wait to make it soon
I love crispy skin fish. So yummy. But I can’t pan-fried them at my tiny little condo. It will stink up the whole room. I can, however, bake them instead. I like the balsamic vinegar, ginger and onion combination. Sounds yummy!
Sounds like a tasty way to enjoy tilapia. Usually I get it with the skin removed but will have to try frying it crisp with skin next time. Thanks!
BOY OH BOY!!! This looks awesome olive I love tilapia. I have never made it with a ginger balsamic glaze that sounds so tasty and interesting. Thank you for sharing :) I also have an award for you to pick up because I absolutely love your blog, thanks for all your hard work!
Hi Joy! :)
Oh, I’m so flattered , an AWARD! ..it is a first for me… thank you soooo much! I like your blog too :)
@Klutzycook - yes, this works with other fish too :)
@Miranda, foodlovee, tastytrix, Amanda,Mary, Alta, Noelle,Anncoo, Cavemancooking – Thank you so much, I’m really happy that you liked it :)
Looks phenomenal!
Very nice dish and nice presentation :)
Beautiful pic! Sounds like an excellent recipe!
Wow, yum! I love balsamic, and this sounds delicious!
Love fresh tilapia. I always pan fry the fish too, with skin on if I can. I love ginger and balsamic vinegar so this is just perfect for me. Thanks for sharing.
This looks AMAZING… a hit of heavy flavor on that light refreshing fish… well done!
Blessings-
Amanda
I love tilapia, both for the flavor and because it’s a fairly sustainable fish.
looks great I always have my fish with skin at home.
This sounds so wonderful and it looks FANTASTIC! Love the family story that went with the lovely recipe.
This has many great flavours and I love ginger. Tilapia is not a fish we have in Australia but i know plenty of others that would substitute nicely. Thanks.
Hi there! Being Filipino – I love tilapia – but I used to only have it one way – deep fried – because I thought this was the best way – but your pan fried fish with that sauce sounds really delicious!
Hi, Trissa :)
Oh, I love fried whole Tilapia too or any fish for that matter, so good with veggie dish, I’m pretty sure you also have fried fish almost everyday growing up :)
@ Ju (thelittle teochew): I agree never say never to something esp if it’s good us :)
@ Lorraine (NQN): thank you, I’m sure you’ll love it too :)
Oooh, I always cook fish with skin on! I think I would love this dish because of all the flavours. I only grew to love ginger in my 30s. So, never say never! :)
Ju
I’m always looking for ways to serve fish and this sounds like a complete winner! :D
Wow yummy, tilapia is one of my favorites…I might borrow this recipe one of these days :)