Almond-Crusted Tilapia with Arugula, Fennel, and Lemon Salad

I have been delinquent in posting this recipe, because it was actually part of my “Vegan + Fish” January — and was unexpectedly so adored that Mr. English regularly pesters me to make it again.  I should listen.

I absolutely love Milanese.  To me, it’s schnitzel with salad, and in my absurd calorie math, fattening + vegetable = less fattening.  Sometimes traditional comfort food (think, gratin) leaves me feeling a bit, for lack of a better word, sick.  Of course, I eat it anyway, because I love it — but that’s precisely what I was trying NOT to do last month.

There is a weightlessness to a Milanese that belies the fact that it, of course, fried meat.  I always get up from the table grinning like the cat who ate a particularly deliciously prepared canary, but never having eaten myself ill.

I think part of its allure, for me anyway, is the fact that maman regularly breaded and shallow fried all kinds of things when I was growing up.  So often, it was flounder.  Sometimes chicken.  Even eggplant (which she would famously douse in a caramelized onion and chickpea sauce — it’s in the family annals).  It’s happy food for me.

To recreate it in my Vegan + Fish way, I coated fresh filets of tilapia with none other than Vegenaise (you could use regular mayonnaise, of course, if you’re not Vegan + Fishing).  Just wait, I’ll explain.  But first, I love tilapia because it has a sturdy fleshiness that at once stands up to my reliably voracious hunger, and also to being flipped in a pan.  It doesn’t crumble to fish flakes upon contact with a spatula.  It has backbone.  I then season and dredge the coated fish in almond meal — which sticks to the Vegenaise as well as I had hoped it would.

I first learned to use almond meal when I took a macaron-making class in Paris an eon ago.  Now, I keep it in my freezer.  It makes the perfect light and nutty and aromatic coating on fish.  Then, just a quick bronzing sear in olive oil, and my “Milanese” is perfect.  I top it with arugula and fennel tossed in olive oil and lemon juice and, for punctuation, pieces of lemon and lemon zest.  It perfectly captures that contract of the rich base and the bright as the summer sun salad.  I think I may have eaten the whole thing in four minutes.  Oh well.