Browned Butter ~ so Easy, so Delicious and so Useful!

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 …

How to Brown Butter

~   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 …

Brown Butter Cookies

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.

Look Inside!

Crunchy, Sweet, Salty, Nutty, Spicy Popcorn!

P _O ^P _C ^O _R ^{N !}

Firstly here is an entirely suitable piece of music to listen to whilst making popcorn!  

Having been away for a few weeks I had a sort through my kitchen to refresh my memory as to what supplies I had.  Lots of good stuff including a couple of bags of microwavable popcorn so I did the decent thing (what diet?) and made a batch of my favourite thing ever popcorn recipe ...

Nutty Popcorn Crunch

60g popped popcorn

180g light brown sugar

120g butter

90g honey

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

100g nuts

~   Preheat oven to 300°F/150ºC/130ºC fan/gas 2.

~   Lightly grease a roasting pan or similar, add the popcorn and nuts and toss together.

~   Stir together the sugar, butter and honey over medium heat till the sugar has dissolved then cook stirring occasionally for five minutes.

~   Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and bicarbonate of soda (the mixture will woosh up) and immediately pour over the popcorn.

~   Stir all together and bake for 20 minutes stirring halfway through.

~   Turn out onto a piece of lightly buttered greaseproof paper or parchment.

~   Cool, break into manageable pieces and store in an airtight container.

Use whatever nuts your fancy but I like it best of all made with salted cashews and a pinch of chilli flakes.

Popcorn is quite fashionable at the moment.  I think fashions in food (or anything, really) are a strange concept but at least this one suits the “current financial climate”; corn for popping is Not Very Expensive, A Little goes a Very Long Way and it’s even Not Bad for You if you don’t add anything to it.  I like adding things to it. 

You can use ready popped corn (or leftovers), microwaveable popcorn or pop some kernels in a pan. The advantages of the first two are obvious, the advantage of the last method is that you can use different fats to pop the corn such as bacon fat or coconut oil, if you want to use butter then clarify it first or it might burn. *** see below.

As you can see I tend to use microwaveable popcorn – a 90g bag makes enough I’d say, for 4-6 people – especially if I muck about with it!  Here are some simple ways to do this ...

Savoury Popcorn Ideas ...

Add spices or herbs or seasonings of your choice, simply crunchy sea salt is good or try ...

~   finely grated lime zest and a little chilli powder to taste, plus salt of course.
~   lemon zest, freshly ground black pepper (and parsley if poss).
~   garlic salt freshly grated Parmesan, add some fresh basil too if you feel like it.
~   bacon salt - bacon is also very fashionable, isn’t it!

Sweet Popcorn Ideas ...

~   Flavoured sugars – e.g. vanilla, cinnamon or real maple sugar.

~   Drizzle popcorn with melted chocolate, toss together and then chill till the chocolate has set then break into pieces no larger than your mouth.  Good additions would be dried fruit, nuts, seeds, or how about some marshmallows and call it rocky road corn.
~   Toast a handful of sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat for a few minutes till slightly fragrant and darker and toss with the warm popcorn together with soft brown sugar and a little crunchy sea salt.

Popcorn Serving Suggestions ...

~   I used to serve corn chowder topped with popcorn which I had tossed in hot chilli butter.

~   Make the popcorn pretty by adding a drip or two of appropriate food colouring and or toss with some sprinkles.

~   Form into bars, balls or lollipops e.g. ...

Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls or Bars

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp light brown sugar

1 tbsp peanut butter (preferably crunchy)

a drop or two of vanilla extract

20g (possibly leftover) popcorn

~   Melt together the honey, sugar and peanut butter with a drop of vanilla extract. 

~   Stir in the popcorn and when cool enough to handle, press into a greased tray or roll into balls.

~   If you’ve taken the tray option allow to set then cut into bars.

Get the gist?  Other sticky combos work well too.

~   Dip such bars, balls or lollipops into melted chocolate.

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*** How to Clarify Butter

~   Dice butter into a saucepan.

~   Melt gently over medium heat skimming off all the froth that rises to the surface.

~   Remove from the heat and allow to sit for a couple of minutes.

~   Pour the clear yellow liquid, which is the part you want, into a bowl.

~   Discard the milky residue OR even better (I’m a bugger for leftovers, me!) add it to soups and casseroles for a bit of buttery flavour.

Clarified butter keeps very well in the fridge and is useful for more than popcorn. As it is free or impurities it can be heated to a higher heat than unclarified so is great for adding buttery taste when pan frying. It is also crucial when making hollandaise sauce and is great as a  dip for lobster or artichokes. 

See here for browned butter, which is slightly related to clarified butter, useful and very tasty.