Tilapia with Dill Sauce and Green Risotto Cakes

Friday November 30

Holt had made the full recipe of Green Risotto on Wednesday, which meant that about a third of it was left over (we find that a cup of dry Arborio rice makes the perfect amount of risotto as a main dish for both of us; that recipe called for a cup and half). But we LOVE having leftover risotto, because that means we can make risotto cakes.

We also wanted to use some of the fresh garden dill before it all freezes. Dill and fish are natural buddies, but almost every recipe you see pairs a dilled sour cream sauce with cold poached salmon. Nothing wrong with that, but sort of boring, and too summery for this season.

Instead, we got out our old standby, Trader Joe's frozen tilapia (defrosted, of course). We coated the fillets with fine breadcrumbs (same sort we were using for the risotto cakes, made from finely-ground-up Holtbread) and shallow-fried them up crisp. Then we held them in a warm oven while we deglazed the pan with a bit of white wine, showered it with chopped fresh dill, added a some cream, reduced the sauce and added a final swirl of butter. A warm and herby alternative.