West Lafayette resident nets prize with frugal fish
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/02/2009
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In one national recipe contest, a West Lafayette resident took home the grand prize.
Gloria Piantek, a West Lafayette resident and teacher, won $250 by sending in her economy-friendly fish recipe.
Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, held the second annual “Frugal Fish Contest.”
“It was a contest to get people to create healthy, sustainable seafood meals,” said Marianne Cufone, director of the fish program at Food & Water Watch.
This year, the contest required recipes to serve four people for under $25.
More than 70 people sent in money-saving recipes that met the contest’s rules. Food & Water Watch made and tasted each of the recipes to decide the winner.
“She came in way under budget; I think it was just over $12, which was great,” Cufone said. “And it was really easy to prepare and tasted great, so we were really excited about it.”
Piantek wanted to make a “picnic-type” recipe, and after making it for her husband, he encouraged her to enter the contest.
The dish was a spicy barbecue tilapia with coleslaw, which she put on a home-baked bun, along with a side of herb-roasted potatoes.
“The idea of using healthy ingredients in a unique way appealed to me,” Piantek said. “When I tried the recipe I thought, ‘wow this is really good.’”
After making the meal, Piantek was hopeful her recipe would win.
“I actually couldn’t believe you could make such an economical recipe in such a good way,” she said.
“I think sometimes people feel they can’t do it because they think fish would be so very expensive, where it’s really pretty economical, especially when you use tilapia. There’s so many things you can do with that fish.”
As for the prize money, Piantek hasn’t received it yet but has no special plans for spending it. She took a Maymester course at Purdue to transfer her teaching certifications to Indiana.
“There is nothing special because (winning) came as a surprise,” she said. “But probably some of it will go toward tuition.”
To view the recipe, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fish/seafood/frugal-fish/frugal-fish-recipe-contest-winner/. Twelve other recipes were runners-up in the contest and will be published online in time for the holidays.