Tomato-poached fish and vegetables on mashed potatoes

At dinnertime, I like to imagine that I am on a Food Network show like Chopped, in which I have to come up with an awesome meal based on a strange assortment of foods. Of course the strange foods are just whatever happens to be in the kitchen that night. I have a thing about making last minute trips to the grocery store—I don’t like to do it—since that’s at least a half-hour venture.

For that reason, I like to think of ingredients as interchangeable parts. Instead of viewing a recipe as a rule book, I look at it as more of a guideline. So I provide this, our dinner, which was created based on what I had in the cabinet tonight: Frozen tilapia, leftover homemade tomato sauce, potatoes, some goat cheese, an onion and a zucchini. From zero to eating, this dish took me just about 29 minutes to prepare. I provide it to you in the hope that it will provide you with some ideas, but that it will not prompt you to run to the grocery store.

Tomato-poached fish and vegetables on mashed potatoes

Serves 3-4

6 individually wrapped frozen tilapia filets (or any mild, white fish)

4 redskin potatoes

1 onion, preferably Vidalia

1 zucchini

1 clove garlic

1 ½ cups leftover or 1 can Muir Glen Organic tomato sauce 

Olive oil or coconut oil

Black Pepper

Garlic powder

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp goat cheese

¼ cup milk

Remove from the freezer and run under cold water to thaw:

6 individually wrapped frozen tilapia filets

Start mashed potatoes

Fill a medium saucepan ¾ full with hot tap water. Place on the stove over high heat, and cover the pan.

Wash and scrub four redskin potatoes. Leave the skins intact and cube the potatoes.

Add the potatoes to the hot water. Once the water reaches a boil, lower the heat to medium-high to keep the water from boiling over. Set a kitchen timer for 12 minutes.

Begin the vegetable sauce

Coarsely chop one Vidalia onion. Heat on medium-high about ½ tsp. olive oil in a large, nonstick skillet with lid. Add the onion.

Coarsely chop one zucchini and add to the skillet with the onion. Sautee until the onion softens, becomes translucent, and starts to brown, about 8 minutes. Add 1 clove minced garlic and cook about 1 minute. Season with black pepper. Add ½ teaspoon dried or fresh oregano. Add 1 ½ cups organic tomato sauce (I had some homemade sauce leftover in the fridge, but you can use canned organic sauce like Muir Glen). Stir the vegetables and sauce together.

Poach the fish

Remove the fish from their individual wrappers and slide them into the tomato-vegetable broth. Nestle the fish down into the sauce, spooning sauce and vegetables over the top to cover the fish. Cover the pan and set the heat to medium. Allow the fish to cook in the broth until opaque and flaky, about 7 minutes.

Finish the potatoes

Into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, drop 2 tablespoons of butter, cut up, and 2 ounces of goat cheese (or Greek yogurt, or cream cheese, or sour cream, or feta). Add ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Season with garlic powder.

Use a colander to drain the potatoes. Add the potatoes to the butter & cheese in the mixer bowl. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Add about ¼ cup milk (or buttermilk)—just enough to make the potatoes fluffy without turning them into soup. Beat on medium-low speed for about 2 minutes. The potatoes should retain some of their texture.

Cover the whole mixer, including the bowl, with a towel to keep the potatoes warm.

Check the fish

The fish will be opaque and flaky when done.

Plate the dish

Spoon 1/4 of the mashed potatoes onto each plate. With the back of the spoon, smooth the potatoes out so they form a bed for the sauce. Top the potatoes with ¼ of the fish and vegetable mixture.