Cornmeal-Dusted Tilapia

Thank y'all for coming back in the kitchen with me and David

I'm going to fix us a piece of tilapia. So if you would just salt and pepper this tilapia for us, David

Yes, ma'am. Happy to. And we've got cornmeal over here. We've got flour

Why don't we mix like three tablespoons of flour to like a half a cup of the cornmeal. Cornmeal

And then I've got a little cayenne because... Ooh, a little heat. Yes. But you like it hot, don't you, mama

Yes, I like it hot. Aha! All right. I like you. Yes. And we've got oregano, and we've got some smoked paprika

I'll get busy on all that, sure. You know, mix those with our dry ingredients

Absolutely. We're going to fry up our fish and a little vegetable oil, David

When I'm in here with Best Dishes, and when I did Paula's Home Cooking

usually I was by myself on that show. Sure. So I did a lot of talking into that camera

Mm-hmm. And I always pictured one of my friend's faces. Sure. When you look down the barrel of that camera, who does David Venable see

Well, you know what? I think of my family and my friends who watch the show, but I also think about who our customer is

Our viewer is not just someone that stays home all day Our viewer is someone that watches us on their iPad All right baby that cayenne Did you know you put that much cayenne I think I put a little bit too much cayenne

I know just hot, David. That was supposed to be a pinch, wasn't it? Well, why don't I just take some of it out

There we go. Now, that should be about right, shouldn't it? All right, perfect. You hot little devil

Always a little bit hot. All right, we'll get a little oregano in here. Okay

And then just a little smoked paprika. Yes. One thing that I found to be really amazing

One day I was out pumping gas in my car, and a great big pickup truck came rumbling into the gas station

This big rough and tumble guy gets out of it. And he starts walking toward me, and I'm thinking, uh-oh

What have you done? What is this all about? He walks up and he says, David, my wife and I love your show

We never miss it. So just when you think you know who our customer is. You was going to get your butt beat

I thought I had done something wrong. I bought too much stuff. Did I cut him off on the way into the gas pump

I didn't know. So you're lightly dredging on the air? I'm just gonna kinda dredge it, and you notice that we're not putting anything wet on this fish to, you know, really make a thick batter

Right, so that way you're gonna get a little light dusting. Yes, we're gonna, we're really gonna get the flavor of cayenne and fish

A little extra cayenne. No the one thing that I love about tilapia is super high in protein So that the first and obvious benefit It also really high in omega oils which is heart healthy Whoa whoa whoa whoa Time out Time out here Do we have tilapia to

sell today? I want you to tell me what you just did there. I just poofed a little cornmeal in

flour to see if our grease was hot enough because, you know, you want to cook fish pretty high heat

Because you do a flash fry and you get it out of there. Yes, because you don't want to overcook

Right. So, David, when I'm cooking fish, I like to only put three in the pan at a time

That's a big rule you taught me once upon a time when I'm frying chicken. You should never over-fry the pan because it cools the oil too quickly. Right

Yeah. It really does. All right, David. Yes, ma'am. Why don't we move down and start on our tartar sauce

Okay, what do you need me to do? And remember, y'all, we got our broccoli roasting in the oven

It smells great. It's going to be so good. I know, doesn't it? Yes. Okay

All right, so let's use about a half a cup of mayonnaise

I'm gonna put in about a fourth of a teaspoon of sugar, and honey, I'm also gonna need you to zest some lemons

I wanna ask you this. Please. Have you ever had like a big snafu

I remember one time I was selling some bottle stoppers that keep the fizz in a carbonated bottle

Right, right, I've seen them. And they clip onto the top of the bottle. And so I remember putting it on top of the bottle and aiming it right at Cameron saying look at how nicely this holds all of the fizz inside Well I didn have it completely clipped on It shot off the end and this great big river of brown liquid went right for the camera

And the four-camera operator got drenched, and everybody was all over the floor. And I said, well, and it only malfunctions when you do it wrong

We all have things that go well and things that don't go well. Absolutely. What's next? Yes

All right, let's put some juice, baby. Okay. And we've got some fresh parsley and fresh dill

All right. If you would mince up that shallot real good. Yes, ma'am, I can do that for you. All right, David, I'm taking our fish up

Yes, ma'am. You probably want to cook that three or four minutes per side

So let's put the shallots, the dill, and the fresh parsley into our tartar sauce

Yes, ma'am. I'll get you this nice piece of hot fish that I just pulled out

Okay. What a treat for that lemon. Yes. Yes. Hit me! Hit me with your best shot. Beautiful

So bon appetit, baby. It looks and smells delicious, sweet pea. Get some of that good tartar on there. Mm-hmm

All right, here we go. Mmm. Mmm! All right, hands up, ready

Happy dance! This way, happy dance! Happy dance! Happy dance! Happy dance

Happy James