Pan Roasted Fish With Carmelized Grape Tomatoes and Onions

My cousin Debbie e-mailed me a recipe for fish that her husband Philip made for her a few days ago that sounded really delicious to me.  I made it last night for my son Danny and me.  It was as good as Debbie said it would be.  When Danny ate it, he said it looked and tasted as good as food from a fancy restaurant in New York City!  The great thing was that because I bought the fish on sale, the whole dish cost less than $10.00, and if we ate this out in a nice restaurant in New York City, it would have cost about $27.00 per person, or $54.00 for the two of us!  I made 1 pound of fish, which really was too much for only two people, but of course we ate it all, because it was just so delicious!

• 1 pound of fish fillet (I used pollack which is similar to cod, but Philip used mahi mahi, so I recommend any mild fish that is a little thicker than flounder)
• 1 box of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 medium onion, cut into a small to medium dice
• about 3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped 
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• a few tablespoons of olive oil (I used light olive oil, but you could use extra virgin)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
• fresh lemon slices for serving (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a cast iron or other oven proof skillet, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium flame.  Put the diced onions in, and sprinkle with a little salt and a few grinds of black pepper.  Cook for a minute or two, and then add all the tomatoes and the garlic.  Continue to cook over a medium flame.  Mix every so often.  Cook for about 10 minutes or so, just until the onions and tomatoes start to get a little carmelized.  When that happens, transfer the vegetable mixture to a bowl and set aside (You may mix in the chopped parsley at this point if you happen to have it). 

In the same skillet,  add about 1 tablespoon of oil, and put the heat on medium.  Sprinkle the fish on one side with kosher salt and about 10 grinds of black pepper.  Put the fish in the skillet seasoned side down.  Then season the tops of the fish with some more grinds of pepper.  Cook no more than 1 minute on each side.  The fish cooks really fast, especially in a cast iron skillet.  Then spoon the tomatoes, onions, and garlic over the fish, and place the skillet in the preheated oven to finish the cooking.  The cooking time at this point will depend on the thickness of the fish.  I kept the fish in the oven for about 5 minutes.  Bring to the table and serve right from the cast iron skillet.

Note:  You could substitute shallots or red onion for the onion, and you could add a few fresh sliced mushrooms too, when you saute the vegetables.  You could also eliminate the salt, and just use the pepper.