Porcini Thyme Compund Butter
I know what you're asking... Yes, I made the plate. Okay, not like in a scene from Ghost with a pottery wheel or anything. No half naked men aiding me in crafting dishware. But I did draw on it with a sharpie. I wrote yum, drew some circles and dots. But I also made the compound butter. That's the star of this show; not my rudimentary art skills. (Truth be told, I'm a very good painter, but that's a whole nother tangent.) Porcini Compound Butter. It. Is. Delicious. I have another compound butter post, which I will provide a link to at the end of this blog. I love them. They're awesome and they make you feel fancy. I almost considered cooking in a ball gown but decided against it. So I cooked in the sweats I walked my dogs in and played with my kids in. But then I ate like a king with a bone-in ribeye, rainbow carrots and a porcini compound butter. And even more amazing than their appeal and taste... You can freeze them! I defrosted a lemon herb compound butter from 3 months ago; couldn't tell.
Ingredients: 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms 2 cups of water 1 1/2 sticks of butter (3/4 cup), room temperature 5 garlic cloves 1 1/2 tbsp thyme 1 tsp salt
Instructions: 1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small pot. Add the dried mushrooms. Allow them to boil for 3-5 minutes. Turn the burner off and allow the mushrooms to sit for another 30 minutes in order to fully reconstitute. Do not drain the liquid in the pot!!! 2. Take the mushrooms out and squeeze the water out. Run them under fresh water to get rid of any stubborn dirt. 3. Chop them up very finely. And put them in a sauté pan. Add 1/2 cup of the water that the porcini mushrooms cooked in. Add 2 tbsp of butter and the miced garlic to the pan as well. 4. Cook this for 3-4 minutes until the "water" has cooked down to more of a concentrate. Make sure to stir so that nothing bakes completely to the pan. Turn the burner off. 5. Chop up the rest of your butter and add it to a mixing bowl. 6. Mince your garlic and chop up the thyme. Add those to the mixing bowl as well, along with the salt. 7. Pour the diced mushrooms and butter/liquid mixture into the bowl; stir together thoroughly with a fork. 8. Refrigerate 45-60 minutes, until the butter has hardened back up. 7. If you would like, you can transfer it to parchment paper and roll it into a log, flatten it on a cookie sheet and cut it with a cookie cutter or a knife. Its your call. Serve with a steak, vegetables or chicken. Enjoy!
