Express News Service
Sample this. A humble, rustic butter can bring in a whole lot of zing to any dish. That’s the magic of cowboy butter aka, unsalted and softened spread, blended with spices or herbs, or any other ingredients that you may fancy. This utterly delicious seasoned butter can then be used as a flavouring sauce for meat or vegetables or even as bread spreads. The French have been using it for centuries, and it’s now taking over Indian kitchens.
This buttery concoction commonly used as dips or for a rich smothering on steaks and chicken is
a potpourri of several ingredients, including the French version with shallots, lemon juice, garlic, Dijon mustard and hot sauce.
“It is comparable to ‘Maître d’hôtel butter’, a timeless French compound butter blended with lemon juice, parsley and seasoning. It’s best used in fixing the sauce that goes over the Chateaubriand steak. But I promise that a modest pat of butter liquescent by the heat of any dish is magnificent.
I make compound butter regularly and use them in a diversity of recipes,” says independent chef and consultant Bakshish Dean. Interestingly this French version of compound butter got its name after the Maître d’hôtel (a French restaurant manager) would create the cowboy butter beside the guest table. How exquisite and how French.
In India, however, the butter has a different blend, which could vary from spicy to tangy. For instance, Chef Varun Tolani, Head Chef, of Masque Restaurant, Mumbai, swap out some of the ingredients for more local ones, such as Kashmiri, byadgi or thengyar chillies or mustard oil rather than mustard for that added pungency, which amps up the end product. Masque’s menus transform according to the seasons and use completely Indian produce obtained from home-grown farms and purveyors.
Here, convention and novelty go together, showcasing a new movement of contemporary Indian cuisine that has seen the restaurant rank #21, and as the best one in India on the list of 50 Best Restaurants in Asia.
“We make a pickled chilli butter with pureed Mirchi achaar, which is made of mustard oil, green chillies, garlic and spices. It’s addictive and smeared on all kinds of meat and bread. We served it for the longest time with our katlam bread. I think the best thing to go with flavoured butter is just good bread. We’d also use it to finish other starches like the horse gram pancake or ragi rotis we’ve used in various courses, to ramp up the flavours,” says Tolani.
Down south, the compounded butter takes a different form. For instance, in Chennai, independent chef and consultant Harish Rao uses a southern-style cowboy butter called Uthukuli.
The uniqueness lies in the buffalo milk and its fodder. “Uthukuli is an arid region; the buffaloes here are typically fed sorghum and cottonseed, so the milk is extremely rich in fat content. This butter is symbolised by its somewhat sour savour and absence of gloss and remains pristine for close a month if kept at room temperature minus any contact with water, I use this butter with southern spices to create my cowboy butter,” says Rao.
The cowboy butter is great for leftovers too and is amazingly adaptable in the home kitchen. “Try it on a humble parantha and enjoy the deliciousness. You can even make sweet cowboy butter by blending in honey, jaggery or date syrup, and smearing it on desserts,” says Dean. It can’t get any butter.
Buttery recipe by chef Varun Tolani
· Whip up softened butter and keep aside
· Blend in any ingredient(s), making your style of cowboy butter. If you are putting in herbs, dry them completely before blending them in.
· Shape the butter into a log and roll it up in cling wrap
· Place the discs of chilled butter on your hot dish and enjoy
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