Re: [CH] steaks

Ben (benbelly@gmail.com)
Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:53:30 -0400 

Matt, 

Those sound great!  Thanks.  Those are complicated enough for me right
now.  I have an 8wk old at home (our 3rd) and don't get a lot of
cooking time.

I don't know of a better way to make butter than whipping cream.  I
did look at a bread machine this weekend with a butter making mode,
but I've never seen one in action.  I had my 5 year old shake a small
tub of cream with a marble in it until he couldn't hear the marble. 
That worked very well, and he was psyched about making butter.

-Ben

On 7/26/05, Matt Evans <tmattevans@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, Ben --
> 
> Although I have made butter before, I am not typically quite so
> adventurous.  Did you make it by whipping heavy cream until the solids
> began to form?  Or, is there a better method?  Someone told me about
> the Cooking for Engineers site a couple of weeks ago -- it's pretty
> cool (I'm an engineer).
> 
> At any rate....green chile-blue cheese butter....  Most of my compound
> butters are made by "feel", with the exception of some of the more
> complex ones.  For the gc-bc butter, I typically roast, peel, and seed
> some jalapenos (or similar) then chop them roughly.  Mix together a
> couple of sticks of soft butter and about four ounces of soft blue
> cheese until smooth.  Add a little fresh thyme, some minced
> dry-roasted garlic, fold in the chopped chiles, and season to taste.
> You can add some smoked paprika too, but the color gets a little funny
> -- OK for the family, maybe not for guests.
> 
> As for a good chile butter, I like to make mojo-chipotle butter.  Take
> about a cup of minced garlic and two cups of olive oil in a saucepan
> over the lowest heat you can muster.  After about an hour and a half,
> the garlic will be soft and roasty -- very sweet.  Mix a few
> tablespoons of the roasted garlic solids, some minced chipotle (2-3),
> juice from half a lime, some salt, and a stick of soft butter in a
> food processor until smooth.  Keep the remaining mojo in a jar in your
> fridge.  The butter won't last through the meal.
> 
> An easier method is just to mix some mixed ground red chile (say,
> ancho, guajillo, de Arbol, and negro) with a little bit of lime juice
> and some toasted and ground cumin seed with a stick of soft butter and
> some salt.  Put it in the fridge the night before and soften it to
> room temperature the day you want to use it -- it will need to sit in
> the fridge at least a few hours to get good.
> 
> If you're looking for more complicated compound butters, let me know.
> 
> Matt
>