Recipes
Flavored Butters:
Maitre d’Hotel Butter
Garlic and Herb Butter
Cinnamon Butter
Honey Butter
5 Mother Sauces
Also in this section: PAN SAUTEED CHICKEN WITH HERB DEGLAZING SAUCE
Beurre Maître d’Hôtel
Beurre maître d’hôtel atop a New York strip steak, served with diced potatoes and creamed spinach
A salmon steak with beurre maître d’hôtel, served with spinach
Beurre maître d’hôtel, also referred to as maître d’hôtel butter, (pronounced maytruh dotel) is a type of compound butter, ‘beurre composé’ of French origin, prepared with butter, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Maitre d’Hotel butter is very simple, but different ideas abound
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
Freshly ground black pepper
Preparation:
Step 1
Mix parsley, lemon juice, and salt into butter in a small bowl. Season with pepper. Place on parchment or waxed paper and roll up into a log. Chill until firm, 1 hour.
Garlic herb butter
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 tbsp fresh chives
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ cup butter
There are rumors that some people add a dab of mustard (!)
More Garlic Herb Butter
Ingredients
- Butter. (I love Irish butter) It must be softened at room temperature, so give it an hour on the counter.
- Garlic. Fresh finely minced cloves of garlic. Garlic powder or garlic salt will not give you the same flavor.
- Herbs. Here you can be creative. A combination of fresh parsley, fresh rosemary, and fresh thyme for example. Try oregano, dill with lemon zest, basil, or cilantro and lime zest. Fresh is better.
1. Cream the Butter
Make sure the butter has reached room temperature. Be careful that the butter does not melt!
Mash butter with a fork in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Mix in the garlic and herbs
3. Roll into a log in wax or parchment paper, seal the ends by twisting the paper. Some people use foil.
4. Chill in refrigerator
Honey Butter:
1 Cup softened butter to 1 Cup honey. If you like a sweeter honey butter, use 1 and ½ cups honey.
Cinnamon Honey Butter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/4 cup honey (not creamed)
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, beat butter, honey, sugar and cinnamon until smooth.
- Add salt and beat until smooth.
- Serve with bread and other baked goods.
I found this delightful recipe by John Ash in NorthBayBiz.com, utilizing the Maitre d’Hotel butter recipe
PAN SAUTEED CHICKEN WITH HERB DEGLAZING SAUCE
Serves 4
Here I’ve used the Maitre d’Hotel butter above to make a quick deglazing sauce. This same technique can be used for anything sautéed including fish or meats.
4 skin-on, boneless chicken breast halves or 8 skin-on chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup finely diced mushrooms
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 – 4 tablespoons Maitre d’Hotel butter, cut into bits (recipe above)
Season chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Over moderately high heat, heat the oil in a sauté pan large enough to hold the chicken in one layer without crowding. Add the chicken skin side down and cook until richly browned and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Turn and continue to cook until chicken is cooked through but still juicy. To tell when it’s done, prick the chicken with the point of a knife and the juices should run clear with no hints of pink.
Remove the chicken and keep warm. Pour off all but a tablespoon or so of the fat in the pan. Add the mushrooms and sauté and stir over moderately high heat until they just begin to color, about 3 minutes. Add the stock and the wine and boil stirring up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Continue to boil until liquid has reduced at least by half and is thickened, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the flavored butter which will melt and thicken the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Spoon over chicken and serve immediately.
John Ash
The Five Mother Sauces:
1. Bechamel: Milk, flour, butter
Bechamel is a simple sauce using a roux. You will only need butter, flour, milk, and a little salt. Melt butter over a medium heat. Sprinkle the measured flour over the butter in the pan. Cook it down until it is a light color. You don’t want to burn the butter. Reduce the heat to low and gradually add the milk, very slowly so that the milk will not curdle. Stir frequently so that there are no lumps. Add salt.
2. Hollandaise: Clarified butter, egg yolks All you’ll need for this sauce are six ingredients.
Egg Yolks – 3 eggs
Lemon Juice – 1 tablespoon
Dijon – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Cayenne Pepper – just a pinch
Butter- 1/2 cup of melted butter
Melt the butter in a microwave for about 1 minute until hot. Combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, dijon, salt and cayenne pepper into a high-powered blender and blend for 5 seconds. Slowly stream in the hot butter into the mixture as the blender is running.
Pour the sauce into a small bowl and drizzle over your meal!
3. Valoute: simmer white stock with roux (roux is equal parts butter and flour)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper
In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the stock, 1/2 cup at a time. Whisk until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve.
4. Espagnole: basic brown sauce thickened with roux
This classic brown sauce is used as the base of a number of sauces that are served with meat or poultry, including Bordelaise, Robert, Chasseur, Madeira, Estragon and Diable. The key to sauce espagnole is to slowly cook the roux so it becomes brown without burning. You can begin with clarified butter, which has a high smoke point.
Directions
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour to make a smooth paste. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon and lowering the heat as needed to prevent burning, until the roux is several shades darker than peanut butter, 18 to 20 minutes.
Stir in the carrots, celery and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, then whisk in the white wine and cook until the mixture thickens, 1 to 2 minutes. Don’t worry if the vegetables get stuck in the whisk; as you add more liquid, they will release and combine with the sauce. Whisk in the stock, 1 cup at a time, and lower the heat to a simmer.
To make a sachet, place the peppercorns, parsley, thyme and bay leaves and in a square of cheesecloth and tie it into a bundle with kitchen twine. Submerge the bouquet garni in the sauce.
Simmer the sauce, using a spoon to skim off any fat or scum that rises to the surface, until it reduces by half and has the consistency of gravy, 30 to 45 minutes.
Remove the sachet, then strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Use as desired as a base for sauces.
5. Classic Tomate Sauce: tomato sauce with roux
While most tomato sauces are described as Italian cuisine, the French have their own classic tomato sauce, Sauce Tomat.
The sauce starts with lightly browning diced salt-cured pork, followed by softening the mirepoix (The French flavor base called mirepoix is a combination of onion, carrot and celery generally cut to the same size. It’s used in a ratio that’s 2 parts onion to 1 part celery and carrot. Finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery) for a few minutes. Add garlic, a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme, whole tomatoes crushed in a bowl, and stock. Cover the pot and pop it in the oven for a slow simmer.
The sauce needs time to simmer, a couple of hours to build and concentrate all of those flavors, but that can be done in the oven.
It is not like a chunky marinara sauce; it’s creamy and tastes intensely of tomatoes
Coming Soon: Danish Frikadeller! (Meatballs) A Variety of Recipes!
