One Spicy Friday Night

Today is one of those fun, unhealthy National Days. It’s Breadstick Day and Greasy Food Day. When it comes to breads of any kind, I am in diner’s heaven. Unfortunately, as a diabetic watching what’s left of my figure, bread is not my friend.

But then again, neither is Greasy Food. You might just say the Good Lord came along and made it Friday. I know I’ve mentioned this before, just at the edge of our little neighborhood is a family run Mexican Restaurant. When it comes to Mexican dishes, it’s something I truly excel in. Just ask my family, I can out cook any restaurant in town. Unfortunately, I also turn the kitchen into a disaster area. The last thing we want to do after a pitcher of Hubby’s margaritas is to clean the kitchen. I am amazed every time that something doesn’t get broken. The joke in our house is that we need to win the lottery so I can have a gourmet kitchen with every bell and whistle, plus a staff to clean up as I go.

Recently on a Friday night Hubby, Kiddo and I had dinner at that little Mexican Restaurant we like so much. On the menu was their Chipotle Crème Sauce served with your choice of shrimp, scallops or Tilapia. Hubby went for the Scallops, something I rarely serve at home simply because the cost of good Sea Scallops is just insane. Normally I order the Chipotle Crème Shrimp. However; not in the mood for sea food, I went for Cheese Enchiladas Verde. (Unfortunately, they got it wrong, and made Chicken instead – a story for another day).

Anyway, to reach an end to all this rambling – when making our menu for the week, I realized we had some beautiful Tilapia Filets in the freezer. That’s when I remembered this sauce and thought while not exactly greasy food, it’s right up there as not exactly healthy while keeping with Traditional Catholic Friday.

Chipotle Crème Tilapia
4 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
4 Tilapia Filets
Salt to taste
White Pepper to taste
6 tablespoons Butter, divided
½ tablespoon Jalapeño Olive Oil
4 tablespoon Tequila
1 cup Heavy Cream
¼ cup Chicken Stock or as needed
4 drops Scorpion Pepper Sauce or to taste
4 Flour Tortillas
Cilantro for garnish

Heat oven to 250-degrees. Place a serving platter into the oven to warm. Finely dice Chipotle Peppers. Season filets with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Warm a skillet over medium heat. Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoons spicy olive oil into the skillet. Brush to coat the bottom of the pan in the flavored butter. Add filets to the pan, cover and cook until cooked through and flaky, about 5 minutes. Gently flip fish, continue to fry, covered, another 5 minutes. Transfer filets to the serving platter in the oven.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter to the now empty skillet. Add tequila, allow too reduce to about half, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, about 2 minutes cooking time.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add cream and Chipotle peppers. Bring to a gentle simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat, add remaining butter, one tablespoon at a time. Thin cream sauce slightly with Chicken Stock if necessary to create a thick yet silky sauce. Taste, elevate heat as desired with Scorpion Pepper Sauce. Warm tortillas for serving.

To serve; place filets on individual dinner plates. Spoon Cream Chipotle Sauce over the fish. Garnish with cilantro and serve with tortillas.

To complete this amazing supper serve with Refried Black Beans, Mexican Rice and Margaritas. Enjoy!

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I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner
Worthy of the call you have received
With all humility and gentleness,
With patience, bearing with one another
Through love