I love Barramundi

Barramundi is a sweet, mild white fish.  It originated in south-east Asia, particularly Vietnam.  It's interesting today because it's part of a new movement for more sustainable fish farming.  HuffPo has a great article on it.  But, besides the benefits to the environment, Barramundi is just a great tasting, easy to cook, easy to store fish.

Barramundi comes frozen in your supermarket's fish freezers.  I've found it at my local Safeway.  Hopefully, it'll be showing up in more markets as its popularity increases.

Barramundi with White Wine, Butter and Capers
It's my belief that fish should taste good in this recipe.  If it doesn't, it's not going to be useful for the vast majority of standard fish recipes.  Look at tuna for a great example.  I love seared Ahi Tuna!  But, tuna tastes terrible in a white wine, butter and capers sauce.  And, tuna is terrible in stew, breaded and fried, battered and deep fried, rolled into a roulette or prepared in any of the other popular fish recipes.  Thus, my first test of Barramundi was this time-tested recipe.

Ingredients

• One nice fillet of Barramundi
• 1 tbs capers
• 2 pats of butter (2 tsp)
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 shallot 
• 1 clove garlic, very finely diced
• 1 lemon, zested and cut into slices
• Salt and pepper

Preparation and Notes
The wine should be a good one.  If you can't drink it, don't cook with it.  Okay, white wine is gross and should never be drank, even the "good" stuff.  But, try to find something less gross.

I, personally, don't mind using lemons that have been zested.  But, some people don't like the funky white pith showing.  Honestly, you don't need a lot of zest, so try to zest only a strip and use the rest of the lemon as wedges.  Or, heck, just use two lemons.

Instructions
Finely dice the shallots and zest the lemon.  Chop the lemon zest to make sure there are no large chunks.
Defrost the fish
Sprinkle the fish liberally with salt and pepper.
Put one pat butter and 1 tsp olive oil in a pan and put the pan on medium-high heat
Cook the butter until it stops bubbling
Cook the fish in the butter/oil until browned
Flip and cook the fish until browned on the other side
Remove the fish to a plate
Add the shallots and garlic and cook lightly
Add the lemon zest
Add the wine and deglaze
Squeeze a lemon slice in and stir
Toss in the capers and stir
Toss in the remaining pat of butter, swirling around until the sauce thickens (this is called "mounting the sauce", also known as Monte Beurre)
Pour the sauce over the fish, and (if you can handle the taste) serve with the remaining bottle of wine.