Yee-haw! for cowboy butter.
For my birthday last November we went over to Columbus, Tx to a new restaurant, Magnolia Society (isn’t that a cool name) and even though I never get steak out because we do really good steak at home I ordered the steak with cowboy butter and balsamic demi glaze.
The steak was delicious. I can’t say I could identify what the cowboy butter was but put together the flavors were great and it made a very nice entree. I knew I’d be looking up a recipe for cowboy butter. I found two and ended up combining the two. One had horseradish and the other didn’t so I divided my mixture in half and added horseradish to one and not the other so I could decide which I really liked better; split decision because both were delicious on the steaks.
What is a compound butter you say. Well, it’s made by taking softened butter and adding herbs and seasonings. Then it gets formed into a log and refrigerator until firm and then it gets sliced and then tops your meat, fish, chicken, or vegetables. It will keep in the freezer for several months. Once we get into our new home with a nice big freezer I plan on keeping several different butters frozen so that will be ready to fancy up any entree I may prepare.
Compound butters can be sweet or savory. Garlic, lemon and rosemary is one of my favorites. How about a jalapeño lime butter, or a chipotle butter. Think about using these on your meats, fish, chicken or things like corn on the cob, rice or breads. How about a cinnamon maple butter to use on pancakes of waffles; wouldn’t that be yummy.
Tonight I’m trying the non-horseradish compound butter and I’m melting it and using for a dipping butter for some warm baguette slices and maybe some boiled shrimp I plan on making for dinner.
So, bottom line is you can add just about anything to butter and come up with your own unique flavors for your compound butter. Hope you will give one a try. Until then (in cowboy language) happy trails to you until we meet again.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Crispy Salt and Pepper Shrimp is a recipe where you eat the shrimp, shell and all. You have to try it to believe it and you do have to use small shrimp like 30 count. This was an Americas Test Kitchen recipe and believe me they try and try and try until they get a recipe right.
All the ingredients for this quick compound butter. It takes longer to assemble the ingredients than it does to mix it together.
Put the softened butter in medium size bowl and all the other ingredients.
Mash it up really good to combine all ingredients.
Put the butter mixture on a piece of plastic wrap and roll into a cylinder.
Top your steak with a slice of the compound cowboy butter.
Cowboy Butter
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter softened (I use salted)
- juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. fresh chives cut very fine
- 2 Tbsp. fresh chopped Italian parsley
- 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves or 2 tsp. fresh
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp. paprika
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 2 Tbsp. minced shallots
Instructions
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In a bowl, add the softened butter, and all other ingredients. Stir until everything is well blended.
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Scoop the cowboy butter on a large piece of plastic wrap and roll into a log. Press to form log and twist the ends of the plastic wrap to hold together. Refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. (I sometimes pop into the freezer for about 20 minutes).
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To serve, cut thin slices and put on top of your steak. Or you can melt this butter and use as a dipping sauce for your steak.
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Store in refrigerator for 5 days or freeze for several months.
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