Quick & Easy Broiled Fish Fillets

Until quite recently (like 4 months ago), my husband thought he was allergic to fish. Evidently he'd been able to eat fish as a child and teenager, but after a stint working in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant, he developed an allergy and went 15 or 20 years without eating anything sea-related.



A couple of years ago, we ordered egg rolls with some Chinese food, and were surprised to find that they contained shrimp (after he'd already eaten an entire egg roll).  We watched him carefully in case he went into anaphylactic shock.  Luckily, he remained unaffected.  After this, shrimp became a favorite of his.



Recently, he decided he wanted to work fish back into his diet - slowly.  We started with breaded cod fillets - a very mild fish, and something that, if it turned out he couldn't tolerate it, at least the boy and I could eat them.  Well, tolerate them he did, and we have slowly been introducing other mild white fish varieties into our repertoire.



Tilapia is something we do quite a bit.  It's mild, flaky and quick-cooking.  My favorite preparation is very simple - salt and pepper for seasoning and a 5-minute sunbath under the broiler.  Here're the details:



Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or butter, if  you're feeling indulgent)

4 tilapia fillets

salt and pepper to taste



Brush a foil-lined pan with the vegetable oil.  Place the fillets on the pan and brush the tops of the fish with remaining oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place on a rack in the middle of the oven under the broiler element.  Allow to cook for 5 minutes, or until fish is opaque.  It might take slightly longer if your fillets are bigger (mine today were a little thick on one side, so I let them go for 8 minutes just to ensure their done-ness.



We served ours with some cheddar mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.  Even the boy liked it!