Cornmeal fried tilapia

I posted this on facebook and thought I would here as well since it was ready made:

Okay, so last night's meal was excellent if I do say so myself. I took it out of my America's Test Kitchen The Best 30-Minute Recipe book (thanks Megan). The fish was FAST. What took longer were the mashed potatoes I made to go w/it. And actually, I made a sauce for the fish that I usually make w/salmon. But since there was no *inexpensive* salmon at Walmart yesterday, I improved and it worked out great!

The Fish:

- 2 skinless catfish fillets (12 oz each) - I used 4 tilapia fillets and had TONS of breading left over I had to toss.

- salt and ground black pepper

- 1/2 cup fine-ground cornmeal

- I just food processed it to make it fine ground

- 1/2 cup all purpose flour

- 1 cup vegetable oil

- I used half veg oil and half olive oil but the book says they can't tell the diff b/w them so they use veg oil

- Rinse and dry fish

- Season fish w/salt and pepper (their note says this is important b/c it draws out the moisture so when you coat it, the flour and cornmeal sticks better. i think it worked well)

- Add oil to 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.

- Meanwhile, dredge fish in cornmeal mixture, one piece at at a time. Press on breading to make sure it adheres.

- Fry fish until golden on both sides, about 4 minutes total (if fillets are large you may need to fry in two batches). This took me probably twice as long to get golden. I could have gone longer but I was worried about drying out the fish. It was pretty crispy yummy as it was though =)

- Remove fried fish from oil and let drain briefly on paper towel-lined plate

The sauce:

- 1 T olive oil

- 2-3 garlic cloves

- 1 t lemon-pepper seasoning

- 2 T lemon juice

- 1/2 c fat-free sour cream (I used light)

- Heat oil in small saucepan

- Add garlic and cook for 1 min.

- Reduce to low and stir in lemon-pepper seasoning and lemon juice.

- Simmer for 5 min or less

- Add sour cream and cook for 5 min or until heated through.

- Double this if there are more than 2 of you... it was just enough for Terry and I.

So yeah, the sauce is quite amazing on salmon, but also on this tilapia as we found out last night. I think that the fish might have been a little bland if I hadn't of made the sauce. Good luck!