Homage to Butter

My mother always gauges the quality of food at a restaurant on their butter. If they don’t have good butter and bread, it will be a bad omen for the rest of the meal. One of my grandfather favorite snacks was french bread and Blue cheese topped off with butter. As for myself, I grew up eating pate with butter on bread. In fact, just the other week, I was thinking how my last meal on earth would probably be as simple as butter on a steamin’ hot baguette.

Finally a tribute to butter in the latest issue of Saveur! The article even goes as far as giving their choices of top 30 butters. You can’t beat that, I highly suggest reading it if you are a butter lover. I never understood why butter gets such a bad wrap. Apparently in the 1860s when there was a plague which lead to a butter shortage, Emperor Louis Napoleon held a contest to see who could come up with the best substitute, hence margarine was born, boo-hiss-hiss-boo! Saveur gives their favorite pairings with butter one of them as simple as Saltine crackers, again, I thought my family were the only wierdos who did that!

I love making compound butters, which is just the mixing of butter with various ingredients such as herbs, spices, or even vegetables. Here’s a version were topping off a piece of a good piece of steak would do me fine! Try Trader Joe’s who sells nice pieces of Flat Iron Steak.



Roasted Red Pepper Compound butter

1 lb Butter (Challenge, unsalted)
1 Red pepper (roasted in oven or jarred), diced
4 oz Parsley

Let better soften at room temperature, then blend in stand up mixer or electric beaters. Add red peppers and parsley and mix until well incorporated. Dump butter onto parchment paper. Roll into a log like shape. Tie or twist tightly on both ends like a tootsie roll. Store in fridge or freezer.