Tilapia with Jasmine Rice

Late January, and the writing has entered its deepest phase — the phase where the book is no longer a project but a companion, the phase where the writer and the manuscript have developed a relationship that is not unlike a marriage: daily, intimate, occasionally frustrating, ultimately sustaining. The Librarian's Table is sustaining me the way the cooking sustains me: not as a distraction from life but as an expression of it.

Robert has been reading the manuscript — chapter by chapter, as I complete them, sitting on the walnut bench he built in the writing room, reading with the focused attention of a man who is both audience and partner, both critic and advocate. His feedback is precise and generous: "This chapter is beautiful. This paragraph is too long. This recipe needs more sherry." The feedback that includes "more sherry" is both editorial and culinary, and the combination is the marriage at the desk.

I have been thinking about Mama with a new quality of thought — not the grief-thought of the first year but the gratitude-thought that follows, the thought that says: she was here. She taught me. The teaching is the book. And the book is the thing that remains when the teacher is gone. The remaining is not consolation. It is continuation. And the continuation is the life.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I read the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" at home — not at the library, because the library is no longer my workplace, but at the desk, alone, reading the words that I organized for others to hear for fifteen years and that I now read for myself, because the reading is the practice and the practice does not require an audience.

I made oyster stew — the January luxury, Bowens Island oysters, cream and butter. The stew was the midwinter warmth. The warmth was the food. And the food was the January.

The oyster stew was the January luxury — but most January evenings, sustenance came in quieter, steadier forms: a warm plate at the end of a writing day, something that required just enough attention to pull me back into my body and out of the manuscript. This tilapia with jasmine rice became that dish for me this winter, the way a good simple meal always becomes something — not a distraction from the work, but the thing that made continuing it possible. Robert would lift his eyes from the manuscript pages long enough to eat, and the eating was the pause, and the pause was the breath that let us go on.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 tilapia fillets (about 6 oz each)
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
3 cups water or low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 lemon, half juiced and half sliced into rounds
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

Cook the rice. Rinse jasmine rice under cold water until the water runs mostly clear. Combine rice and water (or broth) in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let steam, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Season the fish. Pat tilapia fillets dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, combine paprika, onion powder, dried thyme, salt, and black pepper. Rub the seasoning mixture evenly over both sides of each fillet.
Sear the tilapia. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the tilapia fillets and cook without moving for 3–4 minutes, until the underside is golden and releases easily from the pan. Flip and cook another 2–3 minutes, until the fish flakes easily with a fork.
Add garlic and butter. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add butter and minced garlic to the pan. Cook, spooning the melted butter over the fillets, for 1 minute until the garlic is fragrant and lightly golden.
Finish with lemon. Squeeze the lemon juice over the fillets and remove the pan from heat. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Plate and serve. Divide jasmine rice among four plates. Lay a tilapia fillet over each portion. Spoon any pan butter and garlic over the top. Garnish with fresh parsley and a lemon round on the side. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Tilapia with Jasmine Rice — The Midwinter Warmth at the Desk