Smoked Sriracha Butter
On a recent busman’s holiday to Meatopia (work ‘research’ can be great!), The Baron and I had the most delicious picanha steak and smoked sriracha butter from chef David Rushford. Picanha is a cut of beef popular in Brazil. Not only was the steak meltingly good, the butter was smokey, salty with a little pow of heat. Incredibly addictive and we wanted more meat to mop up the buttery juices. Naturally we wanted to make the butter ourselves.
So where did we start? Despite the fact that sriracha has an element of smokiness we decided to used smoked garlic confit rather than plain garlic to create an added smokiness. Take a whole smoked garlic bulb, take all the cloves off and take off the paper skins. Place the cloves in a pan covering them with light virgin olive oil. You want to warm the oil until there are just a few bubbles appearing. Do not let it boil or let the cloves brown. Keep it on the lowest heat possible for about 1 hr.
After an hour, let the oil cool off. Whilst waiting for it to cool beat about 125g of slightly salted butter with a fork. When the oil has cooled pour the oil through a sieve to catch the garlic cloves. Store the smokey oil for use in dressings and cooking. Pop the cloves on a piece of kitchen towel. Then take each clove and it should just pop out of it’s casing. If you can resist eating it, put it in a bowl. Squish with a fork and add to the butter, blend together. Then add the sriracha depending on your preference for heat. It can take surprisingly more than you would think.
If you LOVE all things meaty and cooked over charcoal or wood then Meatopia is a paradise day or weekend out.
Meatopia UK 2016 – 4th-6th September – Tobacco Dock, 50 Porters Walk, London. E1W 2SF
