Grilled Tilapia w/ Peach BBQ Sauce

I've wanted to make this recipe for a couple of weeks, but had a hard time lining up the fresh tilapia and the opportunity to make this. It seems as though Meijer gets it freshest seafood in preparation for the weekend. I say that because I went there on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (I am a terribly inefficient grocery shopper) and the first two days they had a very limited selection of some very odd types of fish. Then Thursday night rolls around and they've got fresh cod, tilapia, tuna and quite a few other varieties I've actually heard of.

So I think from this point forward I'm only going to buy fresh fish Thursday through Sunday. For this recipe I used a package of frozen tilapia fillets. They worked out pretty well as far as taste was concerned, but they stuck to the grill and had pretty much fallen apart by the time they were cooked through. I'm sure I flipped them too much. I have a habit of doing that on the grill in an attempt to get perfectly brown grill marks on all sides.

One final note. Amazingly this recipe is probably the one Paula Deen recipe that doesn't use butter or heavy cream:

Peach BBQ sauce:

  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 3 tablespoons prepared mustard
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • Pinch garlic salt
  • 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cups fresh or canned peaches
  • 4 (7-ounce) tilapia fillets
  • House seasoning
  • 1 lime, juiced
Directions Mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan, excluding the peaches and simmer over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, puree 2 cups of canned or fresh peaches. Once the sauce is cooked, add the pureed peaches to the sauce and stir together. Preheat the grill to medium heat. Season the tilapia with house seasoning. Cook the fish on each side for 3 to 4 minutes. During the last few minutes of cooking, brush the fish with some barbecue sauce. Once cooked and plated, ladle a nice spoonful of the Peach barbecue sauce on top of the fillets.

The sandwiches were very good, but the Food Network really needs to learn how to post better sauce recipes. The flavor was great, but the recipe made more than a quart of sauce. The four sandwiches didn't make a dent in that. So there are about 30 oz of peach bbq sauce in the refrigerator right now. Also, the sauce doesn't reduce during the simmer. I thought it might reduce and turn into a glaze, but that didn't really happen. I think in order to make that happen you'd have to up the brown sugar tremendously. Like upwards of 1/3 cup. But for starters I'd recommend you cut everything in half or more so you end up with a manageable amount of sauce. Lastly, "prepared mustard" = "not dry mustard". It doesn't matter if you use dijon, spicy brown or just yellow mustard. Choose according to your own tastes.

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