When I was searching on the apps for a boyfriend, one of my opener questions was ‘What do you eat to cure a hangover?’. Let me tell you, this question reveals a lot about a person. Yes, there were a lot of McDonald's orders, eggs Benedict’s (Rosie has left the chat), and various forms of a fry up but there were also some really wild ones. One guy swore by a bag of pineapple lumps and banana milk, someone else ate raw fish sushi (he actually turned out to be really cool and subscribes so hi!) and one hideous man insisted an intense gym session was better than any meal. Immediately, no.
For me, a big ass slice of fresh bread with so much butter that when you take a bite you see teeth marks and a good sprinkle of crunchy sea salt is the ultimate cure. Bread is my comfort carb and good bread and butter will forever be one of my favourite foods.
Butter in various guises seems to have taken social media by storm recently and while I am not one to jump on a trend I can’t help but be enamoured by the delightful clouds of dairy appearing all over my feed. I first had whipped butter at Orphan Kitchen many years ago - they would chuck a hot piece of charcoal from the BBQ in the mixer while it was whipping to ‘burn’ it, delicious. Since then, I’ve whipped it up for many a party. Sometimes plain/salted, sometimes with mix-ins and once a lil bit sweet to be spread over darkly spiced ginger loaf.
Today we have a classic whipped butter. This is super simple and will result in something similar to the images above. Pile it high on a cute plate to serve.
Then we have a level-up - whipped mushroom butter. This uses dried mushrooms to make it super umami. I made this for a birthday party I had a couple of years ago. It was a great birthday with lots of food but to this day, people still talk about the butter.
Whipped butter.
The 50ml of dairy isn’t much but helps with getting the volume. Full-fat milk works great, single cream is a little more lux and buttermilk adds a little tang which I really like. Use whichever you have available. If possible a flakey sea salt like Maldon adds a nice crunchy, salty texture.
Ingredients
250g butter
50ml full fat milk, single cream or buttermilk
3g flakey salt, a good pinch
Cut the butter into cubes and place in a stand mixer. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30-50 minutes, till you can press your finger into it easily (this is important as otherwise it is impossible to whip the butter).
Whip the soft butter at the highest setting for 5-7 minutes until it’s airy and completely soft. Turn down the speed to the lowest setting and slowly add your milk choice so it is completely mixed into the butter. Once the two ingredients are mixed, turn up the speed to the highest setting once more and whip for 5-7 minutes. Turn the mixer back to slow and throw in your salt.
To serve, mound it onto a cute platter like a snowy Mount Tongariro.
Whipped mushroom butter.
I’ll be the first to admit that this is not the cutest colour, but it is what it is. And sprinkling the parsley over the top works wonders. If you can find dried porcini, I would 100% make this with them instead however, dried shiitake seems to be a lot more available and still super good.
Ingredients
200g butter
40g dried shiitake, or dried porcini mushrooms, or any dried mixed mushroom mix.
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 medium onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil, added in two batches
2 good pinches of flaky sea salt
1.5 Tbsp white wine vinegar
Parsley or chives, finely chopped
Cut the butter into cubes and leave out to soften 30-50 mins.
Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl with 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and set aside to soak.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are golden and smell delightful, about 10 minutes. Scoop the soaked mushrooms out of the bowl and add them to the pan. Don't throw out the soaking liquid, this funky brown water is full of flavour. Season with salt and cook for another 5 minutes. After 5 mins, turn the heat to high, throw the mushrooms liquid in, stir, and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated - about 5 minutes. Take the mushroom mix off the heat and allow it to cool to room temp.
Add the mushroom mixture to a blender or food processor with the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and vinegar and blitz until fine. Transfer to a stand mixer bowl.
Add the butter and whip on the highest setting for 5-7 minutes. Till its pale brown in colour and fluffy.
To serve, scoop the butter onto a plate and sprinkle with the chopped parsley and a pinch of flaky sea salt.
The mushroom butter will feed eight generously but if you find yourself with some leftovers, it’s delicious:
Scooped onto steak
Atop a baked potato or melted through some boiled ones
Spread over toast with a hefty slice of tomato - and lots of black pepper
Stirred into the end of a risotto
Used as the fat to fry eggs
Credits for the dreamy butter images above - picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4.
Blessed be those of us who have tried these buns from Culprit. If I was going to try to ‘copy’ them… I’d make a milk dough, wrap it around a (frozen?) piece of shitake butter, brush with a marmite and egg mixture, and bake. Same, same but different heh.
I did find a man on the apps and he’s super dreamy. To celebrate his birthday this week I made this Momofuku Bossam for Sunday lunch. It was surprisingly simple, fed a crowd, and had heaps of flavour. Would recommend. Oh also, he eats salted kettle chips and drinks a can (must be a can) of very cold Coke when he’s hungover.
That’s it, that’s all. See you next week.
Rosie xx
Perfect! Now I can make the mushroom butter and not have to politely share it with other people lolol