Ingredients Some Food Moves

Cilantro Squash Blossom Compound Butter

By on Saturday, March 2, 2024

Background: I don’t remember where I learned about compound butter, but I think it was while cooking in an institutional catering kitchen that served beurre maître d’hôtel on it’s steaks for “fancy” banquets. Since then, I’ve tried many different combinations for compound butter but the move below is my favorite. I’ll give some alternatives in the mods:

  1. Grow some summer squashes and harvest the blossoms before they hit the ground.
  2. Grow some cilantro and harvest some leaves before the coriander seeds set.
  3. Get a pound of white butter.
  4. Get some waxed paper.
  5. Let the butter sit for about 15 or 20 minutes.
  6. Put the butter in a food processor and pulse it until it’s soft and smooth.
  7. Chiffonade the cilantro and squash blossoms.
  8. In a bowl with a thick rubber spatula, fold the chiffonade of cilantro and squash blossoms into the butter. Add salt if you want here.
  9. Make a cilantro-squash-blossom butter log on the parchment paper, roll up, and twist the ends to compress the butter.
  10. Put in the freezer to chill quickly.
  11. The day before you are going to serve it, move it to the fridge to soften a bit.

Why It Works

  1. Watch out for bees. One time, I found a bee trapped in a closed blossom when I cut into it. If you aren’t into growing squash blossoms, you can try any edible flower: citrus blossoms, clover, daisies, dandelions, hibiscus, honeysuckle, lavender, lilac, mums, nasturtium, pansies, roses, sunflowers and violets. If you aren’t into edible flowers or they are out of season, try a chiffonade of rainbow chard.
  2. Cilantro is pretty easy to grow in Central Texas and it’s cheap in the stores. However, if you are one of those cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene people, then try another leafy herb like basil, tarragon, or yarrow.
  3. Whiter butter works better than yellow because of the contrast with the ribbons of flowers and herbs.
  4. You could use plastic wrap or foil, but these can be annoying to unwrap when frozen.
  5. You want to soft enough to get processed by the food processor, but not soft enough to liquefy when blended.
  6. Make sure that the food processor blade doesn’t get too hot and cause so much friction that it melts the butter.
  7. A chiffonade is just cut ribbons of leafy vegetables or herbs.
  8. Completely working the ribbons into the butter should create a pleasing pattern when the butter is sliced.
  9. The butter should be still set enough to form into a log. If it’s too melted for that, you could try putting them in to silicon ice pop molds. The log should be the size of a stick of butter, but round. So you should have four them.
  10. You can also store three of the four logs in the freezer and put the other in the fridge.
  11. Unless you already have one in the fridge.

Mods:

  1. Add a dash of lemon, lime, or vinegar for a little acidity.
  2. Roll the outside of the log in black pepper for a different look and taste.
  3. Try these combinations:
    • Garlic and chive (for potatoes)
    • Basil and oregano
    • Garlic, dill and lemon (for fish)
    • Garlic and tarragon (for chicken)
    • Chimichurri (for beef)
      • red wine vinegar
      • chopped parsley
      • garlic
      • red chilies
      • oregano
      • black pepper
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