Tilapia Milanese

From the recent Food Network Magazine, this dish was simple to make and quite delicious. We're not big fish eaters, although recently I've tried to incorporate more fish into our diets to replace a few red meats. We have a favorite Tilapia recipe from a Real Simple magazine, so I thought I'd give this one a shot as well.
This was an excellent meal. It was very light yet also comfortably filling. The fish was very flaky, moist and tender. I think the quality Tilapia that I buy from the Earthfare makes a difference. They have nice, thick fillets, no fishy taste, none of the usual additives and I don't know about you, but I've had enough antibiotics this flu season. The breading on the fish worked remarkably well also. I usually don't have good luck with breaded things unless it's panko, which comes out crispy no matter how bad I screw things up. This had a crispy texture that was not too thick or overwhelming and also very flavorful.

Tilapia Milanese Recipe

4 Tilapia fillets
1 1/2 C milk
1 C A/P Flour
3 eggs
6 slices white bread (I used about 1 C plain bread crumbs)
1/3 C fresh parsley
zest of 1/2 lemon plus lemon wedges for serving
5-6 T olive oil (I use vegetable because we can't eat olive oil)
4 T butter
6 C baby arugula (I used mixed spring greens (spinach, radicchio, dandelions, and arugula))
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Soak fish in milk and about 2 C ice for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix flour with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Beat eggs in another dish. Pulse bread, parsley, lemon zest, and salt in a food processor and transfer to a third dish (or just thoroughly mix these ingredients in the third dish if you're using bread crumbs).

One at a time, remove fillets from milk, dredge in flour, shake of excess, dip in eggs, and then coat in the bread crumb mixture. Put on a plate - do all 4.

Line a baking sheet with foil (Pam helps). Heat a large skillet over medium high. Heat 2 T olive oil and 2 T butter. Add fillets and cook about 3 minutes per side until the breading is golden. Place on baking sheet. Add the remaining 2 T of oil and butter and repeat with the remaining 2 fillets. Bake in the oven to finish for about 8 minutes.

 - Just an added tip here: it's better to have your pan fully preheated at a lower temp than to put your fish in a cold pan and have to jack up the heat. Your breading will burn very quickly if the pan is too hot and you won't know until it's too late. Also, this may be just my pans but I only add the oil and butter just after the pan has mostly preheated and I'm almost ready to start cooking. If the oil and butter preheat with the pan they tend to burn and blacken everything.

While the fish is baking, prepare your salad by tossing with a couple of T of oil and a little salt and pepper.