Tuesday, April 6, 2010

When Life Gives You Lemons...



I am lemon crazy. There, I admitted it. I use lemons in nearly everything. I just love them. I generally go through about a bag of lemons a week. I kid you not. Usually it is for salad dressing as I make my own and eat a lot of salad. But we also eat a lot of fish, and I squeeze lemon over vegetables too. It's great over broccoli or asparagus, even potatoes. Yum!

Use real lemons people. Not the bottled stuff. I don't care if it does say 100% real lemon juice. There is something lost in the processing and you just don't get the same taste, or health benefits. Lemons are good for you, obviously they are high in vitamin C, but they also contain cleansing effects and despite their acidity, they can actually help balance your body's pH. Keeping your pH levels in balance can help prevent illness. Some people like to drink fresh lemon juice in some hot water in the morning as a "tea". Me, I just like using the juice in everything.

The other good news is that lemons are one of those foods that you can buy conventionally grown to stretch your grocery dollar. Since you are mostly using the inside, buying organic is not crucial. Although this week my grocery store had organic lemons cheaper than conventional. Also if you are going to use the zest, or candy the peel or preserve the lemon (basically if you are using the outside of the lemon in any way) then definitely get organic.

One of my favorite standby recipes is pan fried tilapia with lemons and capers. You can do it a couple of ways. First you can use almost any white fish, flounder, cod, trout, they all work well. You can dredge the fish first in a little flour if you want a crispier crust. I like it, it just depends on what I feel like doing. Season the fish with salt and pepper or sometimes I will use a fish seasoning like Old Bay or something just for variety. Put a little oil or butter in a pan over medium high heat. Slice half a lemon into thin slices. Cook the lemon slices in the oil or butter until browned, then add the fish. Squeeze the other half of the lemon over the fish. Cook the fish until just done, a couple minutes on each side depending on thickness. Then just at then end add some caper and a little caper juice. You can also add more lemon juice if you like. Then serve and enjoy. Sometimes I add white wine when I add the fish, I do this more if I haven't dredged the fish in flour. If I have it on hand I will add a little fresh chopped parsley at the end too. If you don't have capers, you could use green olives. Or just leave that part out.

No comments:

Post a Comment