Pan Fried Fish with Lemon and Caper Browned Butter

Heat 2 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large (nonstick) fry pan over medium high heat. Cook the fish until done. I use gurnard, flathead or yellow kingfish mostly, but have used frozen (thawed) hoki fillets before. Very thin fillets should be turned almost immediately, while thicker fillets (such as kingfish) may need up to 4 minutes each side; use your discretion (the gurnard fillets took about a minute and a half or so on each side). Remove the fish from the pan when done and place on a warm plate.

In the same pan used to cook the fish, toss the rest of the olive oil and butter in. Rinse and roughly chop the salted capers. When the butter has melted and is foamy, add the lemon juice (I just squeeze the lemon straight into the pan, that way you get some of those little fleshy bits too) and capers and shuffle the pan to mix.

Place the fish back into the pan, along with any juices that have come out and place back onto the heat, again shuffling to coat the fish in the sauce. The butter should be a lovely golden brown colour.

Turn off the heat and serve, pouring the butter sauce over the top (if there are any crispy bits on the bottom of the pan, you can scrape these off while you are cooking the butter, or at the end, ’cause they are yummy) and sprinkle with fresh dill.