Cafe de Paris Butter

Cafe de Paris Butter is a compound butter which is made and shaped into a cylinder, tightly wrapped in clingfilm and tin foil and chilled, before being sliced and used traditionally, to top a delicious juicy steak. That being said, it is also fantastic served with lobster – either sliced and put on top of a lobster half and grilled, or melted (and kept warm in a butter warmer) for decadently dipping the lobster meat into. It works perfectly as the combination of flavours just enhances the rich, succulent flavour of the lobster meat and makes a truly indulgent gourmet meal! We enjoy this luxurious butter both ways but regardless of what we have it with, a little bit of this magical butter transforms the dish and takes it to a whole new level.

One thing I have to warn you though is that whenever I make this butter I feel a little like George from George's Marvellous Medicine as it literally seems like you are adding everything but the kitchen sink to it! Don't be put off however, as it is really worth it (you might need to just tick off the ingredient as you add them in!!) and a little goes a long way so you can keep it in the fridge and use for a few meals (unless you have a large number of guests to feed!).

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook Maze by Jason Atherton, I have just changed the quantities of some of the ingredients to suit our tastes, but it is virtually the same because it is too good to mess with.

Continued after the jump.....

Cookbook Review ~ Bill Granger Easy {And Marinated Steak Rolls with BBQ Sauce}

When I bought this book (over the internet so with only a brief preview) I was a little worried that the recipes might be a little too easy and simplified since Bill Granger's books are generally always filled with fairly straightforward, relaxed recipes, however, I shouldn't have worried. What fills the pages are beautiful recipes that aren't too complicated but still have a bit of oomph to them so that I wasn't bored or had seen the recipes hundreds of times already. It became obvious very quickly that this was a book that I really wanted to cook from and with 100 recipes I had plenty to choose from.

One of the first things that I loved about this book was the fact that the chapters are divided up by specific ingredient such as 'Piece of Chicken', 'Slab of steak', 'Mince & Sausages' and 'Carton of Eggs', (to name a few). I found this approach really helpful cause it means you can go raid your fridge or freezer, decide what you want to cook with and then just jump straight to the chapter for instant inspiration. There were so many recipes that I wanted to try that I literally gave up bookmarking them since it seemed I was putting a sticky note on almost every page! In the end I managed to try 6 recipes but I still have quite a few that I want to try!

The Tested Recipes:

Orange and Oregano Marinated Pork

Marinated Steak Rolls & Barbecue Sauce

Light Butter Chicken

Spanish Fish Stew

Individual Baked Beans with Eggs

Chilli, Sausage and Broccoli Pizza