Lemon Butter Salmon

Something Smells Fishy...

Everyone has their own version of lemon butter salmon. It’s a classic way to dress a beautiful piece of fish, Paired with mashed potatoes and sauté broccoli and asparagus with a glass of wine, and that all you need for a perfect dinner.

Am I cliché for making lemon butter salmon? Maybe, but it was actually a red lobster garlic lemon butter salmon that started off my salmon eating journey. All my life I hated salmon, always thought it was dry and trashy with the most over powering flavor. However it was on January 16th 2013 when I actually started to give salmon a chance, at red lobster (of all places).  Yes I said 2013, three years ago. I know the exact date because I document a photo a day on my personal Instagram account 365_living. 

‘Any who’, I was in NY for whatever reason and a new Red lobster had just opened at Cross county shopping center.  My sister and I were trying to be healthier and opted for blackened fish and garlic lemon butter salmon with veggies instead of our usual fried shrimp, shrimp scampi, fries and the works platter. I got the salmon, and it was the most perfectly cooked salmon ever; tender, juicy , crispy on the outside, not too salty (which red lobster is notorious for) and that garlic lemon butter sauce was everything and more. I vowed to make lemon butter salmon at home, but I never did, until now.

I feel like such a traitor to my old self, now salmon is one of the first fishes I go to when I need a seafood recipe for the blog. We had a bag of thinly sliced salmon filet in our freezer for a good while and the thought just occurred to me to make some kind of lemon butter salmon. It was one of those days where I did not prepare for blog cooking and had to make a recipe using what I had. I opted for a wine based sauce rather than a creamy one and it Turned out great, so great in fact that my father requested it the following week, only this time I spiced it up by adding grilled shrimp into the mix. Now that was outstanding! Don’t take three years to make this like I did. 

Ingredients (printable recipe)

½ stick salted Butter (semi-soft)

¼ cup Onion finely chopped

2 tablespoon Lemon zest

4 Salmon filet

2-3 pinches of  Salt per filet

2 pinches black pepper per filet

1 teaspoon oil

½ cup White wine

1 squeeze of lemon juice

½ teaspoon Sugar

Instructions

• Mix together with a fork butter, onions and lemon zest. Mush it all together so the onion and lemon flavors absorb into the butter. Set aside in the refrigerator covered for 10 minutes
• Season the salmon filet with salt and black pepper
• In a hot non-stick pan add oil and 2 table spoons of the lemon butter
• Place salmon in the pot and cook until seared on each side. (See greedy tips) then remove from heat
• In a sauce pan or the same pot (if there are no burnt remains) add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter  sauté just until the butter has melted then add the wine, a quick squeeze of lemon juice and the sugar.
• Let the sauce reduce into a thick glaze
• Once it’s reduced remove from the heat and place the salmon back in the pot and sauce them
• Serve 

with the grilled shrimp

Greedy tips:

• My salmon filets were very thin, so I cooked mine less than a minute preside and allowed the residual heat to cook the rest. Generally if your salmon is thick you can do 2-3 minutes per side Make sure the pan is very hot so it gets a nice crispy sear on the outside. 

Xoxo Greedygirl