Light lunch in winter - Swordfish with lemon butter sauce

Canal House Cooking has amazing recipes and great cookbooks.  I highly recommend their cookbooks to anyone who likes to cook.  Many of the recipes are things they say they eat with their families, which to me means that they are fairly easy and not very time-consuming to prepare.  I altered this recipe as they serve the sauce over salmon, but when we went to buy fish the swordfish drew us in and that became the fish of choice for us.

Keep in mind too that Canal House's cookbooks are based on seasonal fare and this particular cookbook (volume number 4) came out last summer.  I was looking for something lighter for lunch, but we were also lucky as the asparagus was looking really good this week and worked very well with the lemon-butter sauce.

Swordfish with Lemon-Butter Sauce

For the Lemon-Butter Sauce:

2 large egg yolks

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) cold Irish butter, cut into 8 pieces

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Salt

For the fish:

Salt

1 1/2 pounds swordfish (or whatever kind you want), cut into four pieces

Fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

Fresh chives, minced

Whisk together the egg yolks and 1 tablespoon water in a medium saucepan.  Cook over low heat, whisking continuously so the yolk won't scramble.  Add the butter one tablespoon at a time before adding the next one.  If the sauce separates, remove it from heat and add the next tablespoon of butter and it should come back together.  Once all the butter has been incorporated, remove from heat and whisk in the lemon juice.  Season with salt.  Keep the sauce warm by setting the pan in a larger pan of hot water.

Fill another pan with salted water, add the fish and simmer over medium heat until the fish is just cooked, about 20 minutes (depending on the fish).  Transfer to individual plates.  Spoon the lemon butter sauce over the fish and serve garnished with tarragon and chives.

Serves 4