Recipe CIII - Cooking with Churned Butter

Churned butter (or beurre de baratte) is very, very easy to make, and it's healthier because the carcinogens found in ordinary butter are not present. You bring some very thick cream to a little under room temperature and put it in the mixer. After a little magic with some salt and ice, you'll have churned butter. I buy mine from a French delicatessen in Luxembourg, but in the end doing it at home is more satisfying and there are plenty of recipes for making it on this marvellous informative behemoth we call the Internet. Today I am going to make three things using churned butter and show you how it can enhance your cooking.

Ingredients:

2 spoonfuls of slightly melted churned butter or beurre de baratte

Some pork ribs

Salt and freshly milled pepper

A tablespoonful of churned butter

Some corn on the cob

2 cloves of garlic

Some fresh or dried herbs (I had to use dried because my fresh herbs have been suffering in the heat)

A pinch of chili powder

Some sheets of tin foil and a fork

A tablespoonful of churned butter

Some cream

Some boiled potatoes

Instructions:

Put some of the butter in a roasting tin. Take your pork ribs and spread some softened butter on the outside of the meat. Then sprinkle some crushed pepper over the top. Put it in the oven on a medium temperature (170°C) for about an hour, turning up the heat for the last 5 to 10 minutes to crisp the meat up.

Put the butter and all ingredients into a small pot and crush thoroughly until they form a consistent mix.

Take some silver tin foil and cut it to the size needed to wrap one cob of corn. In the middle where the cob will be placed, spread the butter mix so when you put the cob on it, the total outside will be covered with the butter. Wrap it up and put it in the oven too, for about 20 to 30 minutes. 

Peel and cut up some starchy potatoes, boil them in salted water and once thoroughly cooked, drain the water and add some churned butter and a small pot of cream. Mash well and serve as the bed for the pork.

Remove the pork and the corn from the oven and serve immediately.

Using churned butter enhances the flavour too. It makes everything taste that little more complete and provides some excellent flavour of its own to all meals. With your own input you can also use it as a dip or a spread.

Recipe LXXXIV - Slow Roasted Lamb in a Rosemary and Red Wine Sauce

Making Christmas dinner for everyone is my yearly task and every year I try and outdo the main course from the year before. If I think of something new, I try to add to the other courses. At the weekend, I tried out my new enamel roasting tin, to see if it gives me inspiration for this year. And you know what? It wasn't bad. Here are the results.


Ingredients:
500g-700g lamb (leg, shoulder, etc.) with the bone
A slice of butter, kneaded with rosemary and whole black peppercorns
Half a bottle of red wine (Greek or south Italian, for a fruity, less acidic taste
4 tomatoes (fresh or tinned)
8-15 potatoes, fairly whole
4 large carrots
2 bay leaves
3 onions, quartered

Instructions:
Turn the oven on to about 150°C. Take your roasting tin and coat it in a layer of butter. Although it is enamel and self-basting, this will make sure, as producers are a little over-confident in their own products' capabilities. So, peel your potatoes, cut your carrots. You can parboil them or you can leave them unboiled and put them later straight in the roaster. Anyhow, take the butter, rosemary and peppercorns, and grind into a consistency. Spread it out on the top of your lamb and put it in the roaster, alone, for 15 minutes.



Put two of the onions, the carrots, the potatoes and bay leaves in the roaster and cook for a further half and hour to 45 minutes.



Before you remove it from the oven, get your tomatoes and red wine, plus more rosemary and the last of the onions. Give them a good blitzing in the mixer.



Pour the liquid around the outside of the roaster, leaving the lamb untouched.



Put it back in the oven for at least an hour, removing the lid for the last 20 minutes and serve the meat thickly sliced.