Pistachio Panko Crusted Trout with Sauteed Heirloom Tomatoes (and more pita chips!)

I think I may have created a monster. Every since my first batch of baked pita chips, all I can think about is eating more. It did not help that on my way home from work last night Chrissy emailed me about them. So my fate was sealed...I had to make more.

Each batch I make gets a little bit better (and I've had a lot of practice in the past few days!) - these were not an exception.

This time the chips were one layer (I separated the pita before cutting) which I think made them crunchier (reduce bake time to about 9 minutes, flipping halfway through, at 350 degrees). These were salt and pepper flavored, and instead of using oil or melted butter, I just used Pam Olive Oil Cooking Spray. So spray the baking sheet, put down the pita pieces, spray each piece, and top with salt and pepper. When I flipped the chips halfway I did not add more spray or seasoning. I'm sure these would be great with a variety of dips, but I enjoyed them plain. I want another batch just thinking about them! I used 1 1/2 small pitas, so all of these chips were just 120 calories.

I knew I needed a more substantial dinner than just more chips, so I defrosted a piece of frozen trout. Trout and tilapia freeze very well, but other fish like salmon and swordfish need to be fresh (in my opinion). I looked in my cupboards and fridge and came up with the following for dinner:

Pistachio Panko Crusted Trout with Sauteed Heirloom Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 piece trout
• 1/2 lemon
• handful heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 10 pistachios, shelled and crushed
• panko bread crumbs
• 1 tsp olive oil

First I heated about 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a pan over medium, and added the garlic. Saute for a few minutes until slightly browned. Then add tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until heated through and a little bit soft. 

Put garlic and tomatoes on dinner plate, and use same pan to cook fish. First squeeze lemon juice on both sides of fish to moisten (this was my swap out for mayonnaise).

Then cover both sides in pistachio/panko mixture (I used a couple tablespoons of panko crumbs and about 10 crushed pistachios).

Spray the pan with cooking spray and squeeze more lemon into pan. Cook fish for about 10 minutes, flipping halfway through, until white and flaky.

In the last couple minutes, add the tomatoes back to the pan to reheat. Transfer all food to dinner plate and enjoy!

Even though this was just thrown together with ingredients I happened to have on hand, the combinations of flavors were so great. Who knew pistachios would taste so good with fish? And the sauteed garlicky tomatoes were delicious both on their own and with the fish. The only problem I encountered in making this was that the pistachios and panko did not stick very well when flipping the fish, which was okay because I just added all of the cooked topping to the fish when done. Another way to do this might be to cook the fish instead of saute so you don't have to flip it. All in all, I was very satisfied with my dinner!