I recently had the opportunity to take a workshop with Chef Johnny Spero of Reverie in partnership between Butter of Europe and StarChefs. In the workshop we were able to see first hand how one of the butters (Beurre D’Isigny) was used in a signature dish created by Chef Spero, French Omelette with Uni.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Butter of Europe brand, it’s funded by The French Diary Inter-Branch Organization (CNIEL) and the EU. The campaign launched here in the US in the spring of 2019. A butter renaissance began here in the US in 2014, and there was even an article about it in the The New York Times, Butter is Back. As the love of using butter in the US continues to grow, and both amateur cooks and professional chefs search for a more refined flavor profile in their butters, European butter brings another level of flavor to even the most novice of palates.
There are 4 main categories of European Butter
- Spreadable Butter
- Unsalted, Semi-Salted and Salted Butter
- Organic Butter
- Fine and Extra-fine Butter
While Chef Johnny Spero created a butter glaze for his French Omelette with Uni, we decided to create a savory herb butter using one of our favorite herb blends from one of our local spice shops, and a sweet cinnamon sugar butter that I’ll share about here on the blog next week.
If you’d rather create your herb blend from scratch, I’ll also share some tips.
We pick up our freshly baked challah from a local bakery that has both traditional challah and vanilla egg challah on Fridays each week. If you’d like to make it yourself, I recommend this recipe from The Kitchn.
Herb Butter with Fresh Challah
Ingredients —
- 125 grams/8 tbsp/1/2 block of Beurre D’Isigny
- 1 1/2 tsp Capitol Hill Blend (Shallots, salt, pepper, dill weed, parsley, chives)
Directions —
- Allow block of Beurre D’Isigny to sit out of the refrigerator for 2 hours to soften
- Once soften, mix together 125 grams of Beurre D’Isigny (or your choice of European Butter) and 1 1/2 tsp of Capitol Hill Blend.
- Wrap in Saran Wrap and press into a rankin folding the excess Saran Wrap on top.
- Place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Serve with fresh challah bread.
If you’d prefer to make your own herb blend, you can wash and mince 1 tsp your herb of choice (basil, dill, oregano, parsley, thyme) and 1/2 tsp of finely minced shallots or garlic. Follow the same instructions as above for mixing your herbed butter.
Yum