This recipe for a lemon-herb compound butter is clutch when you want to elevate your average weeknight meal but don’t have time to dedicate to an elaborate recipe. Whether you’re pan-frying, roasting, or grilling your favorite variety of wild-caught seafood, a lemon-herb compound butter can be all you need for a quick and easy “secret sauce” that pulls everything together into a finished dish.
What Is Compound Butter?
A compound butter, if you’re not familiar, is simply regular butter that has been combined with flavorful ingredients and seasoned to taste. It’s fat, flavor, and finesse, rolled into one ready-to-use kitchen staple that you can store in your fridge or freezer.
The base for a compound butter is softened, unsalted butter, combined with any mix of ingredients: herbs, spices, condiments, etc. For seafood, lemon and a mix of basic aromatics create an herbal butter that can complement all types of fish or shellfish, as well as any vegetables you’re serving with the meal. If you don’t have all the ingredients that are listed in this recipe, you can substitute similar ones that you have on hand.
How to Use Compound Butter:
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When pan-frying, add compound butter in the last minutes of cooking to baste fillets
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Top just-cooked fish with a slice of compound butter and watch it melt
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Toss spot prawns in cold compound butter for an emulsified, creamy sauce
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Slice a little compound butter onto a side of veggies for serious flavor
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Add compound butter to seafood pasta, stirring in just before serving to emulsify into a sauce
- When roasting, place a pad of compound butter on top of fillets and let it baste your seafood as it cooks
