Olive oil has its place, but there's something about butter that makes food taste better.
Butter! Give me butter, always butter!” exclaimed famous French chef Fernand Point, in his axioms on food. And although I use butter in moderation, I have occasionally been accused of a certain degree of butter-lust, and was once proclaimed as the King of Fat. I enjoy olive oil, too, but fish panfried in nut-brown butter and finished with a squeeze of lemon juice and a little vinegar tastes much better than it does if cooked in olive oil.
Flavoured butters add a new dimension to grilled meats, and butter whisked with a little water and tossed over cooked green vegetables will make them more satisfying. Properly creamed butter and sugar will aerate cakes, while in pastry it melts away, leaving a delightfully flaky texture.
There are three types: salted butter, in which approximately 1 teaspoon of salt is added per 500g, which acts as a preservative; cultured butter, which is slightly soured by the addition of lactic acid, making it reminiscent of European unpasteurised milk butters; and unsalted butter, also known as “sweet” butter. I use unsalted butter in my kitchen, so when I need to spread it on bread I whisk the butter in a mixer until fluffy and pale, then sprinkle it with flakes of sea-salt.
The recipes in this column are examples of butter making things taste better. The hollandaise sauce recipe uses standard butter rather than the usual clarified kind that most recipes call for. Clarified butter makes an oily and sometimes rancid-tasting sauce, whereas standard butter improves the texture and flavour but also prevents the sauce from breaking up. And although many cooks suggest using white pepper to avoid having a black speckled sauce, I still prefer to use black.
Traditionally, hollandaise is made with lemon juice only, but the addition of vinegar gives it a lift.
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
75ml white wine vinegar
50ml water
3 egg yolks
½ lemon, juiced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the butter into tablespoon-sized chunks. In a small saucepan, reduce the vinegar and water to one tablespoon. Transfer this reduction into a bowl with sloping sides that will sit easily on a pot of barely simmering water. Make sure the water does not touch the base of the bowl or you may end up scrambling the eggs. Add the egg yolks to the bowl and whisk until thick. Add the butter gradually, whisking continuously until the sauce is thick and creamy. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a tablespoon of hot water. Season with the lemon juice, salt and pepper.
For hollandaise variations, try:
BÉARNAISE: use tarragon vinegar instead of wine vinegar, and add freshly chopped tarragon to the finished sauce. The classic partner to grilled fillet steak.
MOUSSELINE: fold 75ml of whipped cream through the finished hollandaise. Fabulous served over cold poached salmon.
PALOISE: add 2 tbsp of chopped mint. Magnificent with roast lamb.
MALTAISE: replace the lemon juice with blood orange juice, but normal orange juice will suffice. Perfect with new season’s asparagus.
“COMPOUND” BUTTERS CONTAIN more than one or two ingredients and the making usually involves more than one step. The great Montpellier butter from France is one example, with at least 19 ingredients! Far simpler, and perfect with grilled or roasted meats, fish or chicken, is this Argentinian recipe called Chimichurri. It is also delicious over cooked green vegetables. Simply dollop on a teaspoonful just before serving.
CHIMICHURRI BUTTER
1 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp chopped oregano
2 tsp chopped garlic
freshly cracked black pepper
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp salt
Place the herbs, garlic and pepper into a food processor and with the machine running add the butter. Add the vinegar and season with salt. Whiz again. Spread the butter onto a sheet of greaseproof paper, then roll into a log. Keeps in the refrigerator for 4 weeks.
IN THIS TART, the frangipane cream can be made several days in advance, as it needs to be chilled before using.
PEAR AND ALMOND FRANGIPANE TART
120g unsalted butter
150g sugar
200g ground almonds
optional: 1 tsp orange blossom water
2 eggs
a 23cm baked shortcrust pastry tart shell
poached pears (recipe below)
icing sugar to dust
Preheat the oven to 180?C. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy,
preferably in a mixer rather than a food processor, as you want to get in as much air as possible. Add the almonds, orange blossom water and eggs and mix well. Pour the batter into the cooked pastry shell. Arrange the pear slices attractively in circles, each slice overlapping the next, and push them gently into the almond batter. Cook the tart at 180°C for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm with ice-cream or softly whipped cream.
POACHED PEARS
180g sugar
550ml water
1 vanilla bean
6 Beurre Bosc pears, peeled, cored and quartered
In a saucepan, bring the sugar, water and vanilla bean to a gentle boil. Add the pears and reduce the heat to low. Cover with a piece of greaseproof paper and cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Remove the pears from the syrup, drain and chill. Carefully slice the quarters thinly lengthwise. Serves 8.