A Little Bit of Butter Makes it All a Lot Better

Today we started grilling (as you can see from the picture to your right)! Chicken, rib eye steak, flank steak, and a bunch of veggies. You name it, I can grill it (and make it look pretty too). But I don't really want to talk about grilling today because I spoke about meat temperatures in yesterday's post and chimichurri (which we used to marinate the flank steaks) in an earlier post. What I DO want to talk about is compound butter (not to be confused with clarified butter)! I know you might think I'm getting unnecessarily excited about butter, but see that little dollop of creamy goodness on my steak in the picture? That is some tasty butter.

Compound butter is essentially flavorings (herbs, garlic, shallots, lemon juice, etc.) mixed with butter. I usually have a bunch of fresh herbs in the apartment that I'm not always able to use so, instead of throwing them out, compound butter is a great way to use them. Basically, take butter at room temperature, throw it in the food processor, and add any garnishes you like (you can also do it with a fork as long as you finely mince everything). Take it out, roll it into a log using parchment paper or plastic wrap, and freeze. Once it's solid you can store it in the refrigerator along with your regular butter and it should last you for a good amount of time (although if you love it as much as I do it will fly by). I use it to finish off stuff like steak, chicken, lamb, pork, sautéed potatoes, and sometimes even crostini.

For the proteins, as soon as you take them off the heat, cut yourself a slice of the butter and let it just melt over the top. It creates this creamy little sauce that works especially well with grilled foods that aren't always the most exciting items to eat.

For the potatoes: par boil diced potatoes, drain and dry them, and then sauté them until golden brown. Drain off any excess fat and take the pan off of the heat. Add the butter, swirl it around until it melts, and dump the potatoes out onto a paper towel to absorb any of the residual butter.

For the crostini: toast your bread either on the grill, broiler or toaster and spread the butter on just like you would normally. Think garlic butter!

Ok I'm making myself hungry just talking about all of this so let me give you a simple recipe for compound butter and then I'm going to go eat!

• Butter
• Parsley
• Lemon Juice
• Garlic
• Salt / Pepper

(Note: all of these ingredients are to your taste. Try not to get too hung up on measurements - or even ingredients for that matter. Start out conservative and add as you go. Worst case scenario and you add too much lemon juice for your liking, just add more butter. No worries! Have fun experimenting!)