How to Make Lemon Butter Fish?

This Easy Lemon Butter Fish is delicious with any soft, flaky white fish with a light flavor. Fish with a more intricate texture performs better than fish with a softer texture. Fresh cod, halibut, or mahi-mahi would be excellent choices. 4 good-sized, firm white fish fillets, about 6 inches long and 1 inch thick, are required. Look for fish fillets at least 1 inch thick, as thinner fillets don’t cook.

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It only takes a few minutes and a few ingredients to make this Easy Lemon Butter Fish. It’s a tasty and healthy white fish recipe. For a healthy midweek dinner, serve with rice and vegetables. Lemon Butter Fish is more likely to be ordered at restaurants than prepared at home, and it’s hardly your average Tuesday night carpool food. However, it is possible. Yes, it is. In only 20 minutes, you can go from cooktop to tabletop with our Easy Lemon Butter Fish.

How to Make Lemon Butter Fish?

Make sure your fillets are around 1-inch thick to get that lovely thick texture. Choose pieces with a length and breadth of roughly 6′′ x 3′′. We’re looking for nice-sized items.

Aside from that, a big, large, and even-cooking pan is a must-have in any kitchen. I use an extremely wide stainless steel turner with a smooth/narrow edge to get below the meal and flip it quickly when flipping delicate foods like fish.

Ingredients:

  • Four fillets of firm white fish, about 6 inches long and 1 inch thick (cod, halibut, or Mahi would work well.)
  • Three tablespoons melted butter (I use salted, but unsalted is fine)
  • One medium lemon, juiced and zested
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional salt to taste
  • One tablespoon paprika
  • One teaspoon of powdered garlic
  • One teaspoon of powdered onion
  • 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
  • Three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, chopped basil or parsley leaves for garnish and flavor
  • serve with additional lemon slices

Instructions:

  1. Using paper towels, blot excess dry moisture from fish fillets — this step is critical for the fish to brown nicely in the pan. Remove from the equation.
  2. Combine melted butter, lemon juice and zest, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt in a mixing bowl. Stir everything together thoroughly. If preferred, season with a pinch of kosher salt.
  3. Combine the remaining 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper in a separate bowl. Apply the spice mixture to all sides of the fish fillets evenly.
  4. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy pan over medium-high heat until hot. When your oil is hot, could you remove it from the heat? To avoid overcrowding, cook two fish fillets at a time (allows for even browning.) Cook until the fish is opaque, firm in the center, and browned on each side – sprinkle some lemon butter sauce over the fish as it cooks, reserving the remainder for dishing. It’s important not to overcook the potatoes because this will result in a harsher texture. To taste, add more kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  5. Serve the fish with the leftover lemon butter sauce, basil or parsley, and lemon wedges.

What Effect Does Buttermilk Have on Fish?

“For fresh fish fillets like catfish, flounder, trout, or grouper, a little buttermilk bath works wonderfully,” she says. “A half-hour soak in buttermilk sweetens the fish and keeps it wet. According to Deepshikha Agarwal, a Mumbai-based dietitian and sports nutritionist, no scientific data or study claims milk and fish are a sour mix. It’s a misconception, evidenced by various modern recipes and eating habits, and it’s not linked to any allergy or skin problem.

Fish is a non-vegetarian product, although milk is considered vegetarian while being an animal product. As a result, the pairing is incompatible. When consumed simultaneously, the tamas guna in the body is heightened, which might lead to an imbalance.

How Long Should the Fish Be Marinated in Buttermilk?

We’ve discovered a simple approach to remove the odor: Drain and pat dry the fish or shellfish meat after soaking it in milk for 20 minutes. Milk casein attaches to the TMA, and when it is drained, it takes the culprit responsible for the fishy stench. Sweet-smelling, brighter flesh with a clean flavor is what’s left. (Make sure the milk goes down the drain.) Because, well, ew. Milk does not disguise the stench or absorb it from the fish; instead, it reverses the chemical reaction that caused the aromas to begin with.

Soaking a thin fish for as little as 10 to 15 minutes can make it taste milder, and you can easily double the soaking time for thicker fillets or steaks. Before frying, catfish is soaked or dipped in milk. Wild-caught catfish are more likely to have a muddy flavor than farmed catfish. Wild-caught catfish are traditionally steeped in buttermilk for at least an hour to remove the muddy flavor.

Should You Soak the Fish in Before Frying It?

If you’re planning to fry or grill lean white fish, soak it for half an hour in a 10% salt solution to make the flesh whiter and firmer (brine). The salt penetrates the fish more effectively, resulting in a firmer, more pleasing consistency. It is not required to soak the fish in brine or water before cooking to remove any dirty flavor. We never wash or soak whole or filleted fish in the water or any other solution (except a marinade) before cooking because it changes the texture and, as a result, the flavor.

If you’re only going to prepare a couple of fillets for a weeknight meal, a little mild brine will suffice. A recommended ratio for soaking fish in saltwater is around a tablespoon of salt per cup of cold water. You can also add sugar if desired.

How Long Should Fish Be Soaked in Lemon Juice?

In a covered bowl, marinate the fish in the lemon juice for at least 30 minutes and 6 hours. Refrigerate the bowl at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Soak the fish in 1/4 cup vinegar, lemon juice, wine, and water before cooking for a pleasant, delicate flavor. Wash your hands with vinegar and water or salt and water to eliminate the fishy odor. Wrap whole fish in well-oiled cheesecloth before baking. Because fish is more fragile than chicken or beef, marinating it in assertive citrus-based marinades for more than 10 to 15 minutes will result in ceviche.

The acid in foods like lemons or limes will “cook” the fish if given enough time. In theory, you could marinate the fish in lemon juice or any other citric acid for an overnight marinade. For a thinly cut piece of fish, I propose a maximum cooking time of 5 minutes to avoid overcooking and a dry outcome. If you plan to marinate it longer, include oil and seasonings.

What Is the Best Way to Make Frozen Fish Taste Fresh?

Soak your filet in milk for 20 minutes, blot dry, and cook according to the recipe’s instructions. The stink of the fish you’re cooking will be gone, and the flesh will taste fresher. Rinsing frozen fish under cold water until it is free of ice crystals is one of the best ways to prepare it. Then rub it with olive oil and bake it for 3-5 minutes at 425-450 degrees, then remove it and add more marinade and spices. To get rid of the stink, lemon juice or any acid reacts with the TMA in fish. Lime, oranges, vinegar, and tomato sauce are examples of this.

Rosenstein says, adding lemon or a vinegar-based marinade and letting it soak in those flavors to help eradicate any fishy taste.”Before cooking frozen salmon, please give it a good rinse in cold water. If there is any frost or ice on the surface, you should wash it off and dry it before cooking. Even if there is no frost or ice on the fish, do this; according to Livestrong, many producers will freeze a thin layer of ice on the fish to prevent freezer burn and other harm.

Conclusion

Lemon Butter Fish is a light and refreshing fish recipe that will make you feel good about your dinner choice. As you may know, we’re huge fans of seafood around here (some of our faves are rounded up at the bottom of this post for you.) However, certain dishes are frequently saved for weekends, and I’m not sure why because they’re just as simple as Quick Lemon-Basil Chicken. So. With this 20-minute Lemon Butter Fish recipe, we’re upping our Tuesday night dinner game.