Each fall for years, at LL,2, we'd harvest tilapia from our small hatchery ponds. Each 1/10 acre pond produced literally thousands of smaller tilapia. We'd start each pond with about 20 adults during spring when the water was warm enough, feed the fish, maintain a good bloom, and let tilapia do what they do...have babies. Late October, we'd gather a crew of folks and harvest fish with a long seine. We'd get about 60-80 pounds of tilapia big enough to fillet, plus another 3-400 about 8-9" long, that we'd gut, scale, and head. The biggest fish weighed from 3/4 to three pounds.
The smaller fish were brought inside, stocked into four 1,000-gallon tanks to hold over winter. Each tank would receive 400-500 fish. The rest of the bounty of the smallest fish would be fed to Largemouth bass in ponds. Then, we'd keep the inside fish in an insulated, heated room with a biofilter and aquaponic beds to grow greens to eat during winter. We heated that room with a wood-fired stove. We'd get at least ten meals from the fillets and a bunch more with the whole fish. We'd either bake or grill some and fry the rest. But our favorite, by far, was using the fillets in fish tacos. One of those fun recipes was blackened fish with Debbie's fantastic cole slaw. Great meal!
Slaw dressing
1 cup Duke's mayonnaise (or your fave)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste
Mix mayo and sugar, whip until smooth, then add the red wine vinegar.
Small head cabbage, chopped/shredded, use about 8 ounces per recipe, (Debbie often buys one bag of cole slaw mix at the store because it's easier)
Blackening seasoning
1 small lime, juiced
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder Salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground red chile pepper
Using about 2 tablespoons of peanut oil, heat to 350 in a cast iron skillet. Sprinkle the blackening seasoning evenly over 24 ounces of tilapia fillets. Cook about 3 minutes per side, until flaky. Serve with tortillas, either corn or flour, with Debbie's cole slaw. Sometimes we'll add sriracha sauce to spice it up a bit.
