You Could Put This On Shoe Leather And It Would Taste Good

Compound butter is one of god’s gifts. It delivers flavor and mouth-feel to a multitude of dishes and should be a regular ingredient for supper clubs menus.

One of the challenges that every chef faces, is the fact that flavor gets cooked off under the high heat of any cooking process. It is particularly bad with the high heat of grilling. You can try to add flavor with marinades, rubs and even salt and pepper, but the reality is that a lot of what you are trying to add, gets lost or changed during the cooking process. The beauty of compound butter is that you get to add it after cooking, so that the flavor is not lost. Additionally, you get the added benefit of adding it as your cooked meat (or vegetable) is resting. The fat from the butter combines with the juices of your meat enhancing the overall flavor. It’s a wonderful thing.

There are all kinds of compound butters, but I have a standard that I use all of the time.

Ingredients

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) softened to room temperature
2 cloves garlic sliced
1 shallot minced (1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons of freshly chopped herbs (Chive or scallion for beef/pork. Dill for fish)

Process

Sauté garlic and shallot in olive oil under low heat for five minutes until translucent
Add all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well combined

The beauty of this ingredient is that you can make larger quantities and store in the freezer for months. Pull it out and use it liberally on all sorts of things. Friends and family will think you are a culinary genius.

I use compound butters all the time but it was a central ingredient in one of my most favorites events. We had 75 people at my mom’s in Westhampton at a kickoff party for my daughter’s wedding weekend. The main course evolved around using compound butters with grilled strip steak, local swordfish and eggplant. There is a seafood wholesaler on the North Shore of Long Island where we can get a whole loin of freshly caught swordfish. The fresh fish was a thing of beauty. Combined with grilling with our hero compound butter led to a memorable culinary event.

Check out the video

It doesn’t matter if you are cooking for a supper club dinner party or a quick weeknight supper, compound butters will make your dish better. And remember, you can put it on shoe leather and it would taste good.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Feng Shui of Supper Clubs – Seating Arrangements

Could Feng Shui play a role in supper Clubs? I don’t know, but common sense should and why take chances.

First of all what is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui also known as geomancy, is a pseudoscience originating from China, which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment.

So for supper Clubs if we are going to “harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment” we should definitely think about seating arrangements. It makes sense to:

Four Feng Shui (Or common sense) – seating arrangement rules:

Pair people that you think will enjoy each other’s company
Seat people following the line from the old movie (Seams Like Old Times) where Goldie Hawn seats people by saying: “Boy, girl, governor, girl”
Don’t seat spouses next to each other (I know my wife has heard my stories way too many times)
Separate people you know have issues with each other.

Do I believe in Feng Shui? While I’m not sure, I certainly wouldn’t take any chances. I ran a company in the Philippines. It was the Franklin Baker Coconut company. We owned a housing compound in the city of San Pablo about 60 miles from Manila. The compound dated back to the 1930’s during the American colonial era when the company was run by American expats who lived with their families on the company property.

In 2005 the land was very valuable situated in the middle of the city. A Chinese retailer “Walter-Mart” (A real company with good trademark attorneys (?)) made an offer to buy the property contingent on having their Feng Shui expert survey the land. Feng Shui is very important to Filipinos.

The Feng Shui guy walked through the property and when he got to the swimming pool he stopped saying he sensed “pained spirits”. He asked if there used to be a cemetery there. The Franklin Baker people told him the truth which was that while there was no cemetery, the story was that during WWII the Japanese had used the pool as a prison. They put a steal plate over the pool and several Filipino prisoners had died there. The deal to sell the property was off and I don’t take chances with Feng Shui. You can’t make stories like this up.

One of the highlights of Filipino cuisine is the abundance of amazing seafood. We had a plant on the southern island of Mindanao that was right on the bay. Local fishermen would catch these huge prawns the size of lobster tails. One of my predecessors once commented when seeing the size of the prawns that he knew why the rest of the world called prawns shrimp.

How To Eat Mussels

The best way to eat mussels is to use a mussel as a tweezer. Try this method once and you will be hooked for life. It just works. Mussels also make a great supper club starter.

Spending summer vacations on the east coast, one of my fondest memories was going “musseling” with my wife, our kids and my mother. The bay near mom’s always had a plentiful harvest of mussels. The say that you marry the girl like the girl that married dear old dad, Mom and my wife were like two peas in a pod filling buckets up with “free” shell fish.

After scrubbing and soaking in water with corn meal to get rid of the grit, I like to prepare mussels two ways with:

Red sauce (olive oil, garlic, onion, canned tomatoes)
White sauce (butter, white wine, olive oil, garlic, onion)

Add fresh herbs and a hearty baguette to soak up the sauce and you are in for a treat.

Using one mussel as a tweezer to eat mussels is not something we grew up with. My buddy Lucien who grew up in the south of France is the one that taught us this one. If you ever go to Paris you have try moules frites. Chez Leon along the Champs -Elysees is a great experience. While moules frites is originally from Brussels, the French do a great job. You can get your moules 10 to 20 different ways. No choice is bad.

I like mussels for supper clubs because it adds the dimension of sharing. While mussels are increasingly popular at restaurants, they are not everyone’s favorite. Chances are you will have a guest or two that is not a fan, but my bet is that you can get a few converts to the “tweezer” method and have lots of fun with it.