Rich Creamery...

Not long ago I passed something of a milestone here at OHC: 100 posts. Now, I am well aware that, in modern internetland, where people tweet in thirty second intervals about the inane details of daily life (say, for example, of their latest triumph over their shoelaces), 100 is, really, no big deal. However, as I aim for an average one post per week, 100 means I'm approaching two years of this, and it's beginning to feel like something of an accomplishment.

All this self-congratulation has the rather unsavory side effect of encouraging introspection. Basically, I'm wondering what all this is really about, or rather, as a literature professor once put it to me: What's the theme? What's the crucial, underlying message? What's the bloody point?



I've done some back-reading of my tiny library of web-rants. I'm looking for common motifs. I have discovered the following: It appears that I've some unspecific complaint about the processed food industry. I have a general mistrust of the latest cooking trends. I make a lot of typos. I might have an anger problem.

Also, I'm deeply in love with butter.

Infatuated is more accurate, as I cannot imagine cooking without it. I once took a job in an Italian seafood restaurant where the head chef insisted everything be cooked in olive oil and olive oil only. I kept a secret stash of butter in my fridge to finish sauces and baste fish. The head chef once mentioned to me that everything I cooked tasted, well, great.

Any of my long-time readers will be aware that I have a bit of an infatuation with making food from scratch. With this in mind I was amazed to realize that I have never made butter before. I's terribly simple, just whip some for a while, pour off the liquid, season, and you're done. A bit of reading around gave me a few pointers on refining this process a bit; the method is below.

Not content to stick with simple butter, I wanted to turn my home-churned goody into a real treat. One of my favorite things to do with butter is flavor it and then melt it over a steak. I love how the quickly liquefying butter releases a burst of the aromas as the ingredients are warmed atop a grilled chunk of meat. I've several little logs of flavored butters in my freezer, ready to be dropped onto a hot t-bone: garlic butter, truffle, Café de Paris, to name a few.



My wife and I have a favorite sauce for steaks when we cook them at home. It is the result of us trying to combine some of our favorite steak accompaniments (brandy, mustard, eshallots, worcestershire sauce) and, as it is primarily her invention, we call it Sauce Kell. I've been meaning to use the flavors of this sauce in a butter for some time now. Homemade butter seems like as good an excuse as any.

Butter

500 ml cream
cold water
pinch salt

First, culture the cream. By this I mean let it sit at room temperature for about 6 hours. This will sour the cream the tinest bit and adds a lovely dimension to the butter. Pour the cream into a butter churn and churn. Don't have a butter churn? Me neither. In a large bowl whisk the cream slowly by hand (if you are ambitious enough to make your own butter why would you be too lazy to do it by hand?) until the milkfats separate from the buttermilk. You'll know when this has happened.

Pour off the butter milk and ad about 250ml of cold water to the bowl. Mix using a paddle or rubber spatula and pour off the liquid again. Rinse the butter again with cold water; the aim is to remove all the buttermilk. Repeat again if necessary until the water remains clear.

Using the paddle or rubber spatula, press the butter into a pile and squeeze out any remaining water. Try to get it as dry as possible. Excess water will make your butter go rancid much more quickly.

Season with a pinch of salt, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed.

Form the butter into a block or, alternatively, press it into a mould. Refrigerate until ready to use. This, depending on the fat percentage of the cream you use, will yield about 250g of butter. Which you will need for the recipe below.



Sauce Kell Butter

A quick note or two before we start this one. First, I'm not going to teach you how to cook a steak. We'll go over that some other time. Also, this recipe calls for reduced veal stock, or in its stead, demi-glace (which is often available in jars at the supermarket). Making your own stock is a good habit to get into. Let's cover that one very soon.

250g homemade butter, cut into cubes, room temperature
3 eshallots (also called shallots), fine brunoise
1 clove garlic, fine brunoise
125ml brandy
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
½ lemon, juice only
60ml reduced veal stock (or demi-glace)
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

Melt about 2 Tbsp of the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat. Add the eshallots and garlic and gently sweat until they are soft and translucent but have not colored. Add the brandy and ignite. Remove from the heat and allow to burn down.

When the flames have subsided, add the dijon, worcestershire, and lemon juice. Return to a simmer and reduce roughly by half. Add the stock, stir to combine, remove from heat, and add the parsley.

Allow this mixture to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, using a whisk, gently mix the softened butter together with the cooled sauce until they are combined and the sauce ingredients are distributed evenly. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Refrigerate the butter until ready to drop onto a hot, perfectly medium-rare sirloin. Yum.