We had a little canned crabmeat left over from Thanksgiving and an unfinished container of tabbouleh, both of which we got at Costco. Though vacuum sealed,the crabmeat had to be used soon. Tabbouleh is a tasty low fatMiddle Eastern spread made with bulgur wheat and finely diced tomato, onion, cilantro, mint and lemon in EVOO. It goes greatat room temperature on taco chips, crackers or bread points.
So what to do? Make a fish dish.
Tilapia is a major food fish, farm raised. It is fine textured and low fat, a bit more so than flounder. Cheaper too. So we seasoned the crabmeat with a few ingredients from our crab cake recipe and layered it onto one tilapia fillet and topped it with another and tied them off, as shown. The fillets were seasoned with S/P and EVOO. I then dumped the tabbouleh into a buttered dish, plopped the tied fish fillets on top and baked the whole mess in a 400F oven for about 30 minutes. The fillets were 3 inches thick stuffed and tied. So, using the ten minutes an inch rule, 30 minutes was right on.
How’d it come out? The tabbouleh got a little too crispy in the baking process and lost the individual tastes present when served uncooked. But it was OK. The crabmeat did not come through, as distinct from the tilapia, as I had hoped. Recipes abound for crab stuffed sole with the crabmeat usually fattened up with cream or mayo, which I didn’t do. Since the cost
of the lump crabmeat is greater than fish, there are better uses for it. Why not do crab cakes one day and fillet of tender sweet fish the next?
But we’re talking leftovers here. We agreed that it was a nice dish and an interesting use of tabbouleh, but we would not brag about it at the bazaar in Marrakech.
