INGREDIENTS
½ lb of soft (but not melted) salted butter
1 ½ tablespoon of dried mushrooms that you’ll have reduced to a powder
1 tablespoon of chopped lovage or celery leaves
2 shallots, chopped and lightly browned in a pan
INSTRUCTIONS
- On your work surface, lay down a plastic film and deposit all the ingredients that you will previously have emulsified with a whisk, and roll into a tube, making sure you leave enough space at each end to be able to tie it.
- Fold over the film in order to close your butter tube.
- Tie the ends and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Before serving, remove the butter from the plastic film and cut into slices.
Aromatic Trail
Mushrooms = Bordeaux merlot, as any Southern France chardonnay/grenache blanc/rolle/marsanne aged in barrels.
Aromatic Tricks
Just as we did with ice cubes in the Spring volume of the 800 recipes in four seasons of the Papilles pour tous! collection, we also went down the path of flavored butter (of which you’ll find 9 recipes in the Summer volume of the same collection) in order to allow you to go down the aromatic path of dishes cooked with those aromatic butters. And don’t forget: the flavoring ingredient in each butter is the indicator of the aromatic path to achieve harmony with the wines or other liquids. In this case, it is mushrooms, which are great friends with merlot-based Bordeaux wines.
Serving Tip
Wait until you are about halfway into the cooking process of your meat — veal or poultry — to put a slice of your flavored butter onto it. If you choose to use it for the cooking process itself, make sure you don’t cook at too high of a temperature to avoid burning the butter. You can also use some of this well-chilled butter to emulsify a sauce or jus.