I was talking to my friend Debs about Hollandaise Sauce as she intends
putting Eggs Benedict on her menu and wondered how to keep the sauce warm
during service. I told her my own utterly brilliant idea – keep it in a
vacuum/thermos flask.
This got me thinking about brown butter aka
beurre noisette and the possibility of using it in Hollandaise – so I tried it
(using my normal Hollandaise recipe here but browning the butter – see below)
and blimey, delicious!
Brown butter is very easy to make, you can
keep it in the fridge for weeks and there are so many delicious ways to use
it. Recipe first …
~
Dice a block of butter (unsalted is apparently best for this but I can
vouch that salted works well too because that is what I have just used!).
~ Melt it in a light coloured pan (so
that you can easily see and judge the colour change when it happens) over
medium heat.
~ Once melted swirl occasionally to
help it cook evenly and watch carefully – the solids in the butter will sink
and start to brown and then the butter will gradually change colour from yellow
to light golden to nutty brown at which stage it will also smell gorgeous.
~ Immediately remove the pan from the
heat, spoon off and set aside any foam, and pour the butter into a fresh
heatproof container to cool. If you
leave it in in the original pan it will continue to cook in its residual heat.
~ Once cold carefully pour the clear
liquid butter into yet another clean container leaving the solids OR …
~ Keep the solids too, it’s a matter of
personal preference!
I add the buttery foam to the next batch of mashed potatoes, which is
usually within a few hours!
Delicious Ways to Use Browned Butter …
~
Melt over freshly cooked vegetables – lovely on asparagus.
~ Toss freshly cooked new potatoes (in
the shops any minute now) in melted brown butter. Taste first as they may be delicious just as
they are and then season as you will, maybe some fresh herbs.
~ Butternut squash gratin – toss cooked
butternut with browned butter and fresh sage, decant into ovenproof dish,
sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake to hot and crisp top. Great with roast
chicken!
~ A classic sauce for fish is simply
melted brown butter with capers and lemon juice stirred in. I don’t like capers so just use brown butter
and lemon which makes a lovely sauce and is so quick and easy. After cooking the fish wipe out the pan and melt a knob of brown butter, add a squeeze of lemon and it's ready.
~ Cook a little crushed garlic in
browned butter and toss with freshly cooked pasta (preferably a ribbon variety)
and finish with plenty of fresh grated Parmesan (make sure it’s real Parmesan! )
and then maybe sprinkle with the following …
~ Melt a little browned butter, add a handful of fresh breadcrumbs and cook till crisp and browned to
make a lovely caramelly buttery Pangrattato.
~ Toss
freshly popped corn with brown butter together with, perhaps, toasted nuts and
a sprinkle of sugar.
~
Use instead of un-browned butter in baking, it will add a new depth of
flavour to all your old favourites. I
thought for this post I’d bake some …
These have a lovely uber butterscotch
taste.
110g
butter
100g soft light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
125g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
a little milk!
~
Brown the butter as above and when to your liking pour into a heatproof
bowl to cool and solidify.
~ Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC
fan/gas 4 and lightly grease a baking tray.
~ When it’s done that cream the browned
butter together with the sugar and vanilla.
~ Sift together the flour and baking
powder and mix into the brown butter and sugar.
~ Add just enough milk to form a cohesive dough.
~ Roll into the traditional “walnut
sized” balls, arrange on the baking tray (you might even need two trays) with
quite a gap between then and flatten slightly and gently and maybe make a pretty impression on the top but it's not essential.
~ Bake for 20-25 minutes till firm and
turning (more) golden round the edges.
~ Cool on a baking tray and maybe serve
with …
Laphroaig & Brown Butter Ice Cream! Serves 3-4
Almost every ingredient I play with (even
some savoury and peculiar ones) I try incorporating into my genius ice cream recipe. In this case I was a bit worried
because I knew that just adding brown butter to the mix would result in very
firm ice cream – tasty but it would certainly need some softening before
serving. Then I thought, as I often do,
of alcohol and decided whisky was about the right flavour. All we had was Laphroaig which is quite a
strong and controversial taste but it worked. My real man is very pleased with
the result which is just as well as it is his whisky!
70g
butter
200g condensed milk
250ml double cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
30ml whisky – Laphroaig in this case
~
Brown the butter as above then stir in the condensed milk.
~ Set aside to cool.
~ Once cold whisk together the cream,
vanilla extract and whisky to thick.
~ Fold the two mixes together (and if
it seems a bit lumpy then give in another whisk).
~ Freeze
I have, of course, cooked with beurre
noisette before but have never had a real play with the stuff. It takes
minutes to make and keeps very well in the fridge so I shall from now on keep a
batch ready to add to dishes as the whim takes me. I suggest you do the same.
*** This is just one of the splendidly
useful tips in my book Cooking Tips &Techniques but even though I’ve told you this tip now it’s still worth
getting the book as there are at least 500 more quality tips of this calibre! However …
It is available both as an ebook and in paperback; I do
think a hard copy is better in the case of reference books.
