Citrus Swordfish with Cilantro Butter

As you could probably tell from the frequency of my posts over the past several weeks, I am only going to be posting once a week now instead of twice a week because of my work schedule. I am still cooking away, but doing so on the weekends since by the time I get home from work on weekdays there usually isn’t enough daylight left for me to take adequate photos. Work has been going really well, though. I worked NBC’s press tour this past Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday which was a blast. The days were long, but I learned a lot AND Aziz Ansari came up to me and my 3 other page friends at the after party and chatted with us for a minute, which basically made my entire year. He is sooooo adorable. Seriously, so incredibly charming and funny, and even cuter in real life than on TV! Ahhhh what a wonderful evening…but enough about my mildly obsessive psuedo-geeky Aziz-crush, let’s get to this food business! I am a big seafood fan, but don’t eat it as often as I could because of the fact that seafood is usually fairly expensive. However, the other week I was perusing Trader Joe’s frozen foods section and came across 2 swordfish steaks for $4. My first reaction was “whaaaaaaa? Have swordfish steaks always been this cheap?!” And my immediate second reaction was “Who cares?! I’m buying it anyway!!” So I picked them up, brought them home, and tossed them in the refrigerator to defrost. I decided to place them in a citrus marinade and to create one of those herbed butters I keep seeing online. I used fresh cilantro for this one, since it pairs really well with lime and fish. I also broiled the fish in the oven, but wrapped the steaks in tin foil first so that they would stay nice and moist, since there’s really nothing worse than a dry and depressing piece of fish….well, almost nothing. It turned out super well, the flavors blended together perfectly and the melted herbed cilantro butter tasted great over the hot steak. And best of all, it was really easy to make! The steaks take a bit of time to marinade, but making the marinade is very simple, as is the herbed butter.

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Citrus Swordfish with Cilantro Butter

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Author Eva Kosmas Flores

Ingredients

Citrus Swordfish

• 2 Swordfish Steaks
• 8 Limes
• 2 Lemons
• 2 Garlic Cloves minced
• 2/3 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon Regular Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Cilantro Butter

• 6 Tablespoons Butter softened
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro minced
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper

Instructions

1. Grate the zest off of 2 of the limes and set the zest aside. Juice all of the lemons and limes and place their juice in a medium-sized bowl. Add the olive oil, garlic, lime zest, lemon pepper, regular pepper, and salt and mix until well-blended.
2. Place the swordfish steaks in the marinade, cover, and refrigerate. Allow for marinade for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
3. While the swordfish is marinating, make the cilantro butter. In a small bowl, mash together the butter, cilantro, garlic powder, and lemon pepper with a fork until well blended.
4. Then lay out a 6 inch square of tin foil and scoop out the cilantro butter onto the center of one of the sides of the square. Then begin to roll the tin foil around the cilantro butter, and continue rolling until all of the tin foil has been rolled around the butter. Now grab the ends of the tin foil and twist them so that the butter is wrapped like a big piece of candy, as seen in the photo above. Place it in the refrigerator to solidify for one hour, then remove it, unwrap the tin foil, and place the log of cilantro butter on a small plate. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.
5. When the swordfish is finished marinading, wrap each steak in tin foil and place 1 tablespoon of the marinade in the tin foil as well. Preheat the oven to broil. Place the wrapped steaks on a metal tray to catch any drippings and place the tray in the oven. Broil for 10 – 15 minutes, then remove the tray from the oven and unwrap the tin foil using heat-proof gloves. Place the steaks on a serving plate and serve with the cilantro butter.

Recipe Notes

Note: Requires 6+ hours of marinating