Cherries go savory too!

Well, after a very rough week, we are slowly getting accustomed to the "new" normalcy around the house. Thank you again for your support - as we expected, Max has been very reserved and quiet without his pal to pounce on. He is starting to show signs of his former happy self, but it is hard to see him go through his own confusion on the situation.

We had just 7 new recipes this week - the tops this round was the Dark Cherry Bundt Cake, Hamburger and Grape-Tomato Pizza and that light Strawberry Mousse. As I mentioned, we now have a bounty of fresh cherries to plow through - I have quite a few recipes planned, as long as we can keep our grubby paws off of them long enough!

More sweet recipes will of course be showing up over the next few days, but tonight we'll marry those juicy cherries with this savory dish, Grilled Tilapia with Cherry Salsa, for dinner. Before you start on the salsa, you'll want to fire up your grill so it has a chance to come up to temperature (or in our case, that ever-so-handy Griddler). To a couple cups of coarsely chopped cherries, a combination of finely chopped mild red onion, fresh cilantro, a seeded jalapeño and a few squirts of fresh lime are tossed together for a snappy salsa that almost bites back (you could leave the seeds in the jalapeño though if you really want to sweat!)

The tilapia fillets are lightly drizzled with olive oil and then dusted with a very simple and clean spice mixture of ground coriander, salt and fresh ground black pepper. If you cook them on a grill, be sure to lightly oil the grates before you place the fish on to quell any sticking issues. It should take about 2 to 3 minutes per side on the grill, however if you use something like the griddler as we did, it will be about half that time. Sweet, tangy and tart, the chunky salsa was a brilliant star in this dish, but my one concern was that it kind of took over any flavor that a mild fish like tilapia has and the fillets were kind of there "just because". However, if you have any guests that are just starting to test the waters on fish or are turned off by a stronger flavor, then this would be a good thing!

Recipes
Grilled Tilapia with Cherry Salsa