Broil-in-Foil Tilapia (Broiled Mojarra)

A former classmate of mine, Monette, commented to me via a personal e-mail how she’d love to have easy-to-prepare recipes, kind of 20-minute type dishes. I agree! With career, traffic, household chores, picking up kids from school, “taking care of hubby”, PTA meetings etcetera, etcetera, a mother and wife has indeed a lot of balls to juggle. Who wants to sweat in the kitchen after a day of running around trying to please the boss at work? We want to whip up a meal and zip out of the heat in 20 minutes flat, right?

Well, here is a very easy tilapia (commonly called here inthe US and in Latin communities as mojarra) dish that can have wives back to their relaxing baths in 10 minutes. Yeah sure! More like back to scrubbing the bathtub!

Makes 2 to 4 Servings

2 whole tilapia (mojarra), gutted, scaled
3 tbsps fried garlic chips
2 lemons
2 tbsps butter or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place fish on a sheet of foil.
Squeeze lemon juice onto fish.
Sprinkle on garlic chips.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Top each fish with one tablespoon of butter or drizzle with olive oil.
Fold foil, enclosing fish.
Place on foil-wrapped fish on an oven-safe dish. Bake at 375 F for around 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove foil and place on serving platter.

TIPS:
1) Ok, I lied, the dish took 35 minutes to cook. But that 25 minutes of broiling without attendance afforded you enough time to scrub that tub white!