Category: butter

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butter food potatoes

marco pierre white’s fondant potatoes

I’ve been browsing the BBC Maestro series; a selection of masterclasses from famous experts in their field. Filmmaking with Edgar Wright, photography with Rankin and much more besides. What caught my eye was the series of food classes with Marco Pierre White. I thought I’d try Marco Pierre White’s fondant potatoes.

Marco has a shaman-like quality in this series: wise and patient, imparting gems from his vast experience in a lifetime of kitchens. It’s serious and verging on pretentious but the knowledge he is dropping is absolute gold.

Even with this basic recipe – just potatoes, butter, water and salt – is a penitent affair clocking at over 7 minutes deliberately telling you to take your time.

I made it once and it was fine, but I’d gauged the pan wrong and it was far too large so the potatoes cooked through before they had coloured. Working on a smaller pan with less potatoes meant I could control it much more easily and they coloured a treat.

The potatoes were good – but really you’re eating about 100g butter in each bite so I’m not surprised. But they toed the line between boiled potatoes and roasted potatoes to a point where I was conflicted it wasn’t either of them. So I don’t love it, but it was fascinating. In fact it gave me an idea for two more potato recipes – including an improvement on my master recipe for roast potatoes! – so I’ll take getting inspired as a win. Probably what Marco intended anyway?

You can browse the BBC Maestro site for yourself here

https://www.bbcmaestro.com/courses

This article is not sponsored, though I note the week I publish this it’s 40% off.

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marco pierre white's fondant potatoes

An indulgent and rich side dish.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine French
Keyword pommes fondant
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Resting time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  • 1 kg new potatoes peeled
  • 250 g butter keep the butter paper
  • Maldon salt

Instructions

  • Peel the potatoes, and cut off the tops and bottoms to give a flat surface.
  • Cut the butter into 1cm slices and lay in a frying pan. Lay the potatoes on top of the butter and season with salt.
  • Pour in enough water to so that it’s just below the surface of the potatoes. Open up the butter paper and lay on the potatoes.
  • Place the pan on the hob and bring to the boil. Simmer the potatoes gently in the butter and water.
  • Let the potatoes simmer hard in the butter until they are evenly and deeply browned on one side and then flip them. Season with more salt.
  • Once cooked through remove them from the heat and cover in a double layer of cling film. Leave the potatoes off the heat to rest in the butter for about an hour.
  • Finish by brushing the potatoes with a little of their own butter juice, then check if they need more salt.

Video

Categories
butter rosemary

home made whipped rosemary butter

So why is this post about butter of all things? I recently stayed at The Cricketers in Clavering. You can read my review of the accommodation and restaurant here.

Before the starters came a plate of bread and butter was laid out, and Chris always says you can judge a restaurant by their bread and butter. The butter was superb, light and airy packed with herby flavour. I just had to recreate it.

If you’ve never made your own butter, it’s very simple. Depending on equipment you have it might be long-winded, but not difficult. Just beat up some double cream for a bit until you have a solid lump and there you go. Give it a try!

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home made whipped rosemary butter

Course Condiment
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 400 g
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 500 ml double cream
  • Maldon sea salt
  • fresh rosemary

Instructions

  • If you have a food processor or blender, use it. Otherwise get a clean jam jar with a lid. Also, put a couple of wooden spoons or spatulas in some iced water. This will help with shaping later - you can use your hands but it gets very messy very quickly.
  • Put the cream in your processor / blender and leave on a medium speed. It will whip up, get thicker and then turn into an overwhipped fluffy mess. Keep going, scraping down the sides if necessary. After about 15 minutes, very suddenly it will turn into a clumpy mass with a liquid sloshing about. You've now made butter, and the liquid is buttermilk. If you're doing this in a jam jar, just shake it continually until this happens (you may need to take it in shifts with a friend!).
  • Knead and squeeze the butter to squeeze out as much buttermilk as possible. You're now ready to shape the butter using your wooden spoons, folding in salt and rosemary to taste (I used a large pinch of salt and 1 sprig of finely chopped rosemary). You can use your butter straight away or pop in the fridge storing as butter. Keep the buttermilk for baking scones or soda bread. To make whipped butter, read on.
  • Take your butter out of the fridge 30 minutes before use. Beat with a spoon until loosening, and slake with a tablespoon of buttermilk to lighten up. It'll turn fluffy like buttercream icing, and is ready to use.
Categories
butter caster sugar food infographic

which ingredients does heston blumenthal use?

click the image to see a larger version

This word cloud gives a flavour of what Heston Blumenthal puts in his recipes. Phrases in a larger font are used more often (yum, butter).

It’s been made by pulling all the ingredient text from his four major domestic cookery books and firing it into the excellent Wordle engine.

It shows that despite his reputation for off-the-wall, odd ingredients, the base of his cooking is comforting and familiar. Over and over the combination of thyme, rosemary and bay occur. Parsley abounds.  A typical soffrito of carrot, onion, celery and / or leek is very common. And look what else: butter, sugar, milk, cream, flour, eggs… it takes a long time to get to anything obscure. He definitely has specific favourites: banana shallots, fructose, sherry vinegar, button mushrooms crop up again and again.

This infographic props up the vision of the chef that I have in my head: looking to the future with a head firmly rooted in tradition.

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