The love language of butter
LONDON» I’m someone whose “love language” is often wrapped up with food, so cupboard love does not strike a particularly false note with me. If I want to show someone love, a meal is generally made. I, in turn, love my cupboard when I open it and see my staples at the ready: my jars of butter beans, my anchovies, my silky olive oil, my chile flakes. If really big hugs and comfort are needed, though, I often reach for butter.
The link between butter and love was recently crystallized for me when I was reading a recipe for Sho Spaeth’s butter chicken. His description was for a “mother’s love’s worth of butter and cream” to be added at the end. This matched perfectly with dishes I cook for my kids, so many of which have butter at their heart: grilled cobs of corn, buttery mashed potatoes, my very wet scrambled eggs, baked aromatic rice and a whole range of spongecakes.
It’s not just a language between parents and their children, though. Watch grown adults take their first bite of sole meunière, and the pure joy of this French classic will become immediately evident on their faces. The magic of the dish does not derive just from the presence of butter, balanced perfectly by tangy lemon, but from heating the butter to the point of becoming beurre noisette — a nutty, frothy, caramelized brown butter.
Brown butter can be paired with — so as to elevate — the most basic of ingredients. Here, it’s a jar of butter beans that have been roasted in the oven, but it also works well drizzled over wilted greens, baked eggs, mashed carrots, rice pudding or plain tagliatelle. Everyday dishes, each and every one, made utterly lovable by the simple addition of butter.
Brown-Butter Butter Beans With Lemon and Pesto
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
6 cups (drained) homecooked, canned or jarred butter beans (about 2¼ pounds)
7 tablespoons olive oil Kosher salt and black pepper L cup roughly grated
Parmesan
L cup packed roughly
chopped parsley
3 scallions, trimmed and
sliced
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest plus L cup juice (from 3 lemons)
1 cup unsalted butter (2
sticks)
8 garlic cloves, peeled and
thinly sliced
8 oil-packed anchovies, drained and roughly chopped (about 2 packed tablespoons)
1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Directions
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Dry the butter beans very well, then spread them out onto 2 large parchment-lined baking sheets (trays). Add 2 tablespoons oil, ¼ teaspoon salt and plenty of pepper to each baking sheet, toss gently to combine, then spread the beans in an even layer. Roast for 15 minutes, then carefully turn over the butter beans and return to the oven, swapping the positions of both baking sheets. Roast until nicely browned and crispy, another 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t worry if some of the butter beans are broken or split; this lends plenty of crisp texture.
While the beans roast, make the pesto: Add the Parmesan, parsley, scallions, lemon zest, a good pinch of salt and a generous amount of pepper to a food processor, and pulse a few times to finely chop. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons oil and blitz until combined. Transfer to a bowl, stir in 4 teaspoons lemon juice, and set aside.
Add the butter to a large skillet and melt over mediumhigh heat. Once melted, cook for 4 to 5 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, until beginning to brown and smell nutty. Add the garlic (it will bubble vigorously) and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the anchovies and cook for 30 to 60 seconds more, or until the garlic is very lightly golden. Stir in the red-pepper flakes, then remove from the heat. Stir in the remaining lemon juice.
Using the parchment paper as a sling, transfer the roasted butter beans to a large platter or divide among plates. Pour the brown butter mixture on top. Dot with some of the pesto, and serve right away, passing the remaining pesto in a bowl alongside.
Missing the warm, sweet potato hash at your favorite brunch spot? These perfectly-portioned paleo egg cups come close.
The recipe, from Livermore’s Michelle Smith, blogger of The Whole Smiths and author of the new cookbook, “The Whole Smiths Real Food Every Day” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), uses bacon to flavor the eggs, but vegetarians can leave it out.
The everything bagel seasoning provides crunch and flavor (you can salt to taste). Don’t skip greasing the muffin tin with oil. It makes the egg cups easy to pop out.
Sweet Potato Hash Egg Cups
Makes 12 egg cups
Ingredients
1 teaspoon coconut oil
K medium sweet potato, grated
(O to 1cup)
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 slices bacon
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon everything bagel seasoning
Directions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a muffin tin with silicone muffin cups and lightly grease the cups with the coconut oil.
Stir together the sweet potato, olive oil and salt in a medium bowl. Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared muffin cups and press it up the sides to form cups. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until the sweet potato is soft.
While the cups are baking, heat a skillet over medium heat. Put the bacon in the pan and cook until crisp, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain and cool.
Transfer the bacon to a blender or food processor and pulse to create bacon “bits.”
Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add the bacon bits and bagel seasoning and stir to combine.
Pour the egg mixture into the sweet potato cups, filling about two-thirds up. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake the egg cups for 16 to 18 minutes, until they are cooked through and the eggs are no longer runny.
Let the egg cups cool, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave to serve.