Butter is life! What would a crumpet be without salted butter melting into its myriad pockets of air? Or a piece of toast?
It’s the butter, spread thickly into every corner, that makes it worth getting up for in the morning. Butter makes the most flavoursome, rich cakes, sauces, pastries – the list goes on.
It's handy to have a few compound (flavoured) butters in the fridge. Not only do they look beautiful when you cut into them, but they really can make a meal in minutes, bringing a whack of flavour to almost anything.
We’ve used Great British Food Award-winning Castle Dairies Halen Salted Butter (made in Wales with Welsh Halen Mon sea salt) to create a Pink Peppercorn, Roasted Garlic, Chive and Radish Butter that’s gorgeous with white fish and chicken, and a Pistachio Pesto Butter, perfect with grilled meat, fish, vegetables and pasta.
The butter will keep for 4 days. Wrap and freeze anything you don’t think you’ll use immediately.
Ingredients
Butter 1:
1 pack (250g) salted butter
3 tbsps pink peppercorns
100g pink radishes
1 head garlic, roasted until soft
2 tbsps chives
Seasoning
Butter 2:
1 pack (250g) salted butter
100g pistachio nuts
2 cloves garlic
1 large handful basil leaves
Zest 1 lemon plus a squeeze of juice
100g Parmesan
Seasoning
Method
1. For the pink peppercorn butter mix the butter in a mixer or with a spoon until soft and pliable. Lightly crush the peppercorns so you have a combination of crushed and whole peppercorns and add to the butter.
2. Squeeze the soft roasted garlic into the bowl. Finely chop and add the chives. Top and tail the radishes and cut into tiny pieces (around 1/2cm each) and add to the bowl.
3. Mix all the ingredients into the butter well. Grind in a few twists of black pepper and maybe a touch more sea salt.
4. Spoon into silicone moulds (or dishes) and firm down to make sure there are no air bubbles. Chill for at least 8 hours or overnight, then carefully de-mould and wrap in greaseproof paper.
5. For the pistachio pesto butter, soften and stir the butter until pliable. Crush the pistachio nuts so three-quarters of them are well crushed and a quarter are a bit chunkier. Add to the butter.
6. Grate in the garlic, Parmesan, lemon zest and a squeeze of juice. Roughly chop the basil and add this too. Combine all the ingredients well into the butter, season to taste, then mould.
