Bread And Butter

I’ve come up with 10 ways to use butter in your spring pantry.

1.   Crudité

One of the simplest ways to use butter during spring is on a crudité platter. Unsalted butter sprinkled with fleur de sel and slathered on a peppery red radish has become the very symbol of spring.

2.  Sandwich

Butter and ham are a match made in heaven: salty porkiness and creamy sweetness united.  Buttered baguette with ham is great for a spring picnic lunch.

3.  Croutons

Need to use up stale bread? Make buttered croutons. Cube the bread and pour melted butter over it, then heat in a 350 degrees farenheit oven for a few minutes. I like the idea of a spring salad, heavy on the croutons. Toss herbed goat cheese with the croutons, roast beets, spring salad greens, and toasted hazelnuts.

4.  Compound butter & spring veg

Best used in a recipe with simple, fresh flavors, compound butters are perfect for delicate spring vegetables. Try spring peas and baby spinach topped with a garlic and chopped fresh herb butter. The salty, complex flavor of anchovy butter would be a great partner to broccoli. Maybe an orange zest and shallot compound butter for asparagus. How about making a honey-ginger butter for steamed carrots?

5. Compound butter & meat or fish

I think of compound butter in regards to a meat/fish dish as the lazy cook’s answer for a sauce. For grilled lamb shoulder chop you could use a Herbs de Provence compound butter. A dollop of lemon-thyme butter would be lovely atop roasted fish.  Grilled steak and black peppercorn butter are a good pair. Use your imagination, there are so many possibilities.

6.  Sauces

Poached fish is a perfect dish for spring. I serve it with beurre blanc, a rich butter sauce. In The Art of Simple Cooking, Alice Waters shares a recipe for béarnaise, a buttery sauce flavored with shallot and tarragon.  She pairs it with grilled steak or roast beef. Any time you sauté meat in a pan, you have the opportunity to make a pan sauce enriched by whisking in butter. It’s worth the seconds of extra effort.

7.  Pâte Brisée

A fancy word for pie crust, pâte brisée is a dough made from flour, water, and butter. Pâte Brisée dough can be used for making fruit pies or galettes. Spring is the perfect time for a strawberry-rhubarb pie.

8.  Pâte Sucrée

Similar to pâte brisée, pâte sucrée calls for more sugar and therefore has a more sturdy crust that is easy to press into a tart pan with a removable bottom. Tarts are great for spring entertaining. Citrus is still in season, so why not make a lemon tart? The “Panna Cotta Tart” from Martha Stewart’s Cooking School would be lovely as well.

9.  Cookies

I love a shortbread cookie with my tea.  All you need to make a shortbread cookie is butter, flour, sugar, and salt. So simple! For spring time you could brighten the flavor with a bit of lemon zest or lavender flowers.

10.  Biscuits

What is better than a rich and flaky biscuit hot out of the oven? Butter is the reason for the flakiness and the flavor. Biscuits can be sweet, as in strawberry shortcake.  They can also be made savory with the addition of herbs or cheese.

I would love to hear how butter fits into your spring pantry.

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