Sarah Pope: The Bountiful Benefits of Bone Broths

I bought the butter, now what??

    Compound  butters (French: "Beurre composé") are mixtures of butter & supplementary ingredients, used to enhance flavor, and can be used in the following ways;

~As a Finishing Butter on: Risottos, grilled gourmet burgers, chicken, steaks, fish, escargot, and vegetables from Asparagus - Zucchini!  

~Pan Sear  or Sauté meat, poultry, shrimp, and fish in compound butter before finishing by grilling, baking, braising, or roasting.  Pan fry veggies with our butters -Try frying Tomatoes in them!

~As a Topping on: Baked potatoes, toast, bagels, crackers.  Chipotle lime is great on Corn-On-the-Cob and popcorn!

 ~ Sweet Honey Butters are a great Topping on oatmeal, biscuits, waffles, pancakes, and muffins.

~Turn butters into a Sauce for; crab fish, meat and poultry dishes by adding them to a little wine and/or a broth base.  

~You can finish most white or savory sauces with an extra zing from our butters.

~Bake cookies, pie crust and other sweet desserts with our butters.  When a recipe calls for butter, sometimes savory herb butter makes a great substitution such as our lemon basil butter in a shortbread cookie! Or pie crust

~As a Spread on bread or present butters similar to cheese on a cheese/meat/cracker platter.

~Melt as dressing or drizzle on warm pasta or potato salad.

~Have a "Beurre composé" tasting party.  They make an interesting array of Dipping Butters at your next crab/clam/seafood bake theme party

~Use as a beautiful Garnish on top of potatoes, yams, green veggies at your Holiday Dinner Table.

*Stores airtight in freezer for two months

Bacon Candy

Sometimes you have to Nourish your soul with something like bacon candy...

Here's the recipe I used from Bon Apetit...

Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Cook bacon in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until most of the fat is rendered and bacon is starting to crisp. Transfer bacon to a sieve set over a small bowl; reserve drippings.

Return bacon, 1 Tbsp. drippings, sugar, and sesame seeds to same skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar turns the color of milk chocolate, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to prepared baking sheet and use a spatula to spread out evenly; let cool. Break brittle into shards.

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/03/twice-baked-sweet-potatoes-with-bacon-sesame-brittle#ixzz28FMgEyZA

They suggested using them as sprinkles over twice baked sweet potatoes, which we did but I also thought it would be good to just eat them plain, by the fistful, if you are into that sort of thing.

Are You Nourished?

Get Nourished this fall and pick up a new T-shirt at one of the upcoming markets.  We have Women's and Children's sizes.  Toddler and baby sizes coming in the near future!

Screen printed on 100% Cotton.

7th Ave Stroll

Thanks to all who braved the heat and got Nourished at the 7th Avenue Stroll. We had a great time talking to new friends about our compound butters.  Look forward to seeing everyone on October 14th at the Scottsdale Road Farmer's Market from 8-12

Make Your Own Butter

Want to tire out the kids and get butter and buttermilk in the process?  I've got just the project for you!

First fill a mason jar 3/4 full with cream and hand to child with instructions to shake and keep on shaking!

 It will eventually get thick and coat the sides and seem like you can't shake it anymore and children may or may not have given up by now but you must go on!

 The moment it separates from buttermilk to butter solids is so strangely satisfying!

 Top view.

 Strain it, salt it, eat it!  This butter will not keep the same way store butter will so use this "project butter" quickly.

 Most bakers have that unfortunate moment that the whip cream turns to butter on them and that is quite a bit less satisfying, but if you are doing it on purpose it's awesome!

To improve shelf life strain the buttermilk at this point (use it for pancakes!) and "rinse" the butter with ice water.  Pour ice water and mix again, drain and repeat until the water comes out clean.  By removing the milk from the butter it will have less of a chance to go rancid on you.  Salt it and store in fridge in airtight container.

De-mystifying the Bouquet Garni

Has your recipe ever called for a Bouquet Garni and you are wondering what you missed?  Bouquet Garni is French for "Garnished Bouquet" and traditionally consists of bay leaf, thyme, parsley and peppercorn.  This is probably the single best ways to impart a savory rich flavor to sauces and soups.  The above picture is my bouquet before I wrapped it up. 

It is simple to make little package and tie it with twine to drop in your soup.  You can add the whole bouquet to your sauce pan while it is simmering and then just remove and discard or just add the separate ingredients straight to the pan of a sauce that needs to be strained anyway.   I make a lot of stock so I bought the above contraption and just toss the ingredients in there and put the whole thing in the pot.  You will be amazed at the depth of flavor this little bag of herbs will give.