Lemon Butter Sauce for Fish
I make Fish every single week, and this Lemon Butter Sauce is one of my favorites to serve with any kind of fish (and with some vegetables too). It's super quick and easy to make, elevating the dish to a whole new level. Plus, you only need a very few ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry.
Living in Seattle, we have access to really good fish, especially salmon. Which is amazing because Salmon is such a great healthy fish to add to your diet. I buy fish every week, and whenever I feel like making my fish dishes a little fancy, or restaurant style, this lemon butter sauce is one of my go-to recipes. It pairs amazingly well with salmon, swordfish, mahi-mahi, flounder, tilapia, and any fish you'd like.
The pan I use to make sauce
I use this small stainless steel wok. With any sauces that involve whisking, I like to use a wok-like pan with sloped edges. The goes well with the whisk and you get more surface area to work. You can also use a small frying pan with sloped edges. I usually skip using sauce pans for sauces that involve whisking because it's always hard to whisk the sauce on the edge.
Why does the sauce break?
When the sauce breaks, that means they are not emulsifying properly together. This could happen due to many reasons.
- Heat is too high
- You are adding butter too fast. Wait one cube is totally mixed in before adding the next one
- Acid+water mixture has reduced too much.
- Not adding enough butter. This could make it have too much acid that is not mixed in with butter.
Servings Ideas with Lemon Butter Sauce
I make lemon butter sauce mainly for fish and seafood, but it also goes amazingly well with vegetables and pasta.
For fish and seafood: I like it with salmon, swordfish, tilapia, halibut, barramundi, mahi-mahi, and honestly, any type of fish would go with this. For seafood, it's great with shrimp, crab legs, and lobster. I usually make the sauce a little thinner and butter-forward if I'm going to serve it with seafood.
Vegetables: It's great with Asparagus, broccoli, potatoes, and carrots.
Pasta: especially with spaghetti or angel hair pasta, along with some more parsley, a bit of garlic, and parmesan cheese. I also make sure to make it thinner and less tangy.
It's tangy, buttery, herby, and very quick and easy to make. One of my favorite fish and seafood. Goes well with vegetables and pasta as well.
- 1/4 cup Lemon juice (1/4 cup = juice from one medium lemon)
- 1/4 cup Water
- 6 tbsp Cold Butter, cut and separate to one tablespoon cubes
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1/8 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp Finely chopped parsley/dill
Add lemon and water to a pan (better to use a pan with sloped edges so it's easier to whisk). Bring it to a simmer. Keep the heat at medium-low.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Continue adding the remaining butter one tablespoon at a time, whisking until each addition is fully melted and emulsified before adding the next. You might not need to use all the butter. Stop adding butter once the sauce reaches the consistency you'd like.
The more butter you add the thicker it gets. The amount of butter you need to add depends on the consistency you'd want.
Turn off the heat. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Mixed in parsley
