A few 'New to fish' questions

Not that I know of. If you want crispy, you need fat. And you will get splatter, or you need to get splatter. Crispy = no moist and while moisture escapes from the cooking fat, there will be splatter. If you want to avoid splatter, I think you can try steaming either the Chinese wok style or wrapped in parchment paper with aromatics and wine, but you won't get anything crispy.

Mark, are you cooking on the cooktop or in the oven? Your comments are a bit ambiguous.

For a thin filet, there's no need to use the oven. It will cook pretty quick, and you want to be able to monitor it. The general rule is ten minutes cooking time per inch of thickness. A thin filet, therefore, takes only 2 to 2 1/2 minutes per side.

The amount of oil actually is dictated by the size of the pan. What you're looking for, in a recipe such as you describe, is a thin film. So, to pick a random example, if that film is achieved by two tablespoons in an 8 inch pan, you may have to go to 3 tablespoons in a 10 incher.

I leave it as an exercize for the the student to figure one obvious way of reducing the oil.

By why are you concerned? If the oil is hot enough, the fish isn't absorbing enough of it to make a difference, healthwise. If it's not hot enough, the fish will be soggy regardless.

Sounds to me as though the oil wasn't hot enough, to begin with.

But it can also be that your method of transfering the fish picked up a lot of surface oil as well. That is, there was oil adhering to the fish, and to the spatula, etc.

Next time try this. First, assure the oil is hot enough. Cook the fish. Lift it with the spatula and, lean it slightly against the side of the pan (above the oil, of course), tilt it upwards and let the oil on the surface and spatula drip off for a moment or three. Then transfer it to the paper towels. That will get rid of most "loose" oil. The rest should be easily absorbed by the paper towels.

It also sounds as though you're on a very low oil kind of diet. If that's the case, why pan fry at all, when there are so many other great ways of preparing fish? I would choose something other than tilapia (which has very little flavor of its own) and go with a different dry, white-fleshed fish. Then try anything from broiling to poaching to baking.

Just for the record, tuna and its relatives are oily fish. But that's apparently not the problem for you I'd thought. Also oily are salmon, all the mackeral, bluefish, trout, dolphin, etc.

Among the common white-fleshed fishes would be halibut, grouper, red snapper, flounder (all the flatfishes, in fact), haddock, pollack, the sea basses, and others, including most fresh-water fishes.

For grilling, first choice goes to the oily fish, for what should be obvious reasons. Among the whites, whole fish work better on the grill than filets; even if they have the skin left on. A whole snapper on the grill, for instance, can be incredible. Filets, on the other hand, are likely to stick and fall apart.

Swordfish also works well on the grill. But, in general, think of swordfish as beef rather than as fish.

You're buddy's suggestion sounds good. I would call it steamed rather than poached (poaching requires submersion in liquid). Cook the veggies to the tender-crisp stage, then add the fish and cover the pan. Just before the fish is done I'd throw in a jigger of bourbon and flame it. But that's certainly not necessary---although salt and pepper is. If this sounds like I make a similar dish it's because I do.

On your tilapia experiment, did the fish sizzle and spit as soon as they hit the oil? If not, the oil was too cold.

Although it's held in disrepute, I still use the drop-of-water-in-the-oil test for pan frying. For deep frying you really need a thermometer. And never fill the pan more than half way with oil.