Day 58: Tarragon mustard butter, Red wine butter and Orange chilli butter

Utterly butterly was the theme for tonight’s efforts as I made Flavoured butters for steak – Tarragon mustard butter, Red wine butter and Orange chilli butter.

As I’ve said before, I could have a share in the company that makes Kerrygold butter – especially after this recipe. I went through almost two full 1lb blocks of the stuff. I actually trebled the ingredients in each recipe to make a lot of butters so that I could give some away to friends and family to try so here’s what I did…

For the Tarragon mustard butter, I needed butter, garlic, Dijon mustard, chopped tarragon, salt and crushed peppercorns. I mashed it all together and put three large scoops of it each on a sheet of parchment paper and rolled them. For the peppercorns, I put them in a freezer bag and battered them with a rolling pin. I had to get Donal in Harry's of Bridgend to get me the fresh tarragon as it was so difficult to get. Thankfully, they grow it in their walled garden so I was saved - thanks Donal!

For the Red wine butter, I had to put the crushed garlic and red wine (Wolf blass) in a saucepan, bring to the boil and let it bubble on a high heat until three tablespoons were left. Once cooled, I added the mixture into the butter, chopped thyme, crushed peppercorns and salt. Again, I made three separate rolls of the butter by using parchment paper.

For the Orange chilli butter, I mashed together butter, the grated zest of oranges, chopped chilli, grated root ginger, crushed peppercorns and salt. I made three of them too.

I served the butters with a sirloin steak and (I'm almost embarrassed to admit this but) paprika potato wedges (again!). Sorry! They are just so gorgeous that they are becoming a regular feature on a Saturday night now. By the way, the sirloin steak was huge to the point where I would actually refer to it as being the size of a half of a cow!

The three kinds of butter

The steak was huge!

The verdict…

Dear Husband scored the Orange chilli butter the highest – 8 marks out of 10; second place went to the Red wine butter – 5 marks out of 10; and third place to the Tarragon mustard butter – 4 marks out of 10. I was surprised that Dear Husband's favourite was the chilli one but there you go. I made a lot of these butters so I'm going to distribute them to friends and family to try and will update this post later so it's still a work-in-progress for now. The sirloin steak was excellent as it always is being from Grant's Butchers in Buncrana. Overall, Dear Husband really loved this meal and it was exactly the kind of dinner that he loves on a Saturday night. Dear Son ate the steak, no butters and a few wedges. Baby Daughter ate the wedges but I didn't give her the steak as I don't think she has enough teeth yet to chew!

A few bits of advice though if you decide to make these. I got fed up using the garlic press after the first batch so reverted back to my beloved mini-chopper which was super handy yet again. When you are putting the flavoured butter, place it near the edge of the sheet and then roll back. I found this the easiest way to roll the butter without making a mess.

To conclude, these butters have made The List as, although they all scored differently, it will be great to get the perspective of others on these. So, for now, to be continued...