Seared Trout with Brown Butter and Capers
Ten minutes from pan to plate, and the browned butter does all the work of a sauce.
- Serves
- 2
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 8 min
- Written
Method
-
Pat the trout fillets dry and season both sides with salt and pepper.
-
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
-
Lay the fillets skin-side down and press gently for 10 seconds so the skin doesn’t curl.
-
Cook undisturbed until the skin is crisp and lifts cleanly from the pan, about 4 minutes.
-
Flip and cook until the flesh is opaque and flakes with a fork, about 2 minutes more.
-
Transfer the fillets to a plate and wipe out the skillet.
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Melt the butter over medium heat until the foam subsides and it turns golden-brown and smells nutty.
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Stir in the capers and lemon juice, scraping up any browned bits, then pull the pan off the heat.
-
Pour the butter over the trout and scatter with parsley.
Notes
Watch the butter, not the clock. It goes from foaming to brown in about a minute, and from brown to burnt almost as fast — pull it the moment it smells nutty and looks like light hazelnut skin. The capers stop the cooking and add the salt-and-acid hit that a rich fish needs.
Any thin white fish or a salmon fillet works the same way. Serve it over something that can soak up the butter — boiled potatoes, wilted greens, or just bread.