Portuguese fish recipe

I made this recipe up after a similar type of recipe in a Portuguese cookbook would never come out the same way twice for me.

That other recipe called for pan fried fish, but my baked version times out nicely and creates less mess. Nevertheless, I've included a pan fried fish option as an appendix.

Ingredients needed:

• 1 pound of fish (thawed):
  • HEB's thick tilapia loins or thick fillets of orange roughly if baking the fish,
  • thin fillets of tilapia if pan frying the fish.

• 1 1/2 cup of Prego Heart Smart Mushroom tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup (heaping) sweet peas (I like to use Birds Eye Steamfresh Sweet Peas, which come in a single serving size)
• 1/2 cup (heaping) pine nuts (~2-2.5 ounces)
• a lemon or two (to make 2 tablespoons of juice)
• 1/2 cup (heaping) diced broccoli crowns
• 1/2 cup (heaping) chopped onion
• 1/2 cup diced cilantro
• a teaspoon of olive oil

Preparation (start about half an hour before serving time):

1. Brown the pine nuts and start the fish baking:
   1. Put the cast iron baking sheet for the fish on the middle rack and set the oven to 400 degrees.
   2. When preheated, spread the pine nuts on a cookie sheet and brown for 8 minutes, shifting them around about half way through.
   3. Take out the baking sheet, spread it with olive oil, and put the fish on it.
   4. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
   5. When the timer goes off, remove the fish from the oven and (if they're cooked through) remove them from the hot baking sheet. Cover them if there's any delay to serving.

2. While the pine nuts and fish are working, prepare the topping:
   1. Cook the peas (the Birds Eye single serving microwaves in 1.25 minutes).
   2. In a saucepan:
      • Use 1/2 teaspoon olive oil to brown
      • the 1/2 cup diced onion, and
      • the 1/2 cup diced broccoli crowns.
   3. Add to the above the 1 1/2 cup tomato sauce and heat through.
   4. Just before serving stir in:
      • the 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
      • the 1/2 cup of cooked peas
      • the 1/2 cup roasted pine nuts
      • the ~2 tablespoons lemon juice

3. Serve as soon as the fish is done.

Appendix: using fried fish instead

1. If you're doing it this way, probably you should prepare the sauce first, except maybe not adding the ingredients to be added in step #2(D) until just before serving.

2. Put a large cast iron pan on the stove to preheat on a medium high setting.
3. Pour in about 1/4 inch of canola oil.
4. In a flat, wide bowl, combine a lot of white corn meal with a good bit of coarse ground pepper.
5. When the oil is good and hot (so that a piece of meat dropped in suds up):
   1. Bread on both sides enough fillets to fill the bottom of the pan.
   2. Brown on both sides, making sure the flesh is cooked all the way through.
   3. Remove the cooked fillets and pat them with paper towels.
   4. Repeat until all the fish is cooked.