Food 18 Sep 2007 03:32 pm
browned butter?
Last Saturday I stopped by the Chef In Residence table at the University Farmers Market and asked a question or two of Elise Fineberg. (She’s the pastry chef at Taste down at the Seattle Art Museum. And she’s also, I have to say, totally hot. Yow. But I digress.) I think that was Hsiao-Ching Chou next to her, but I wouldn’t swear to it. Anyway, I’ve got a sizeable crop of delicata squash coming in and my ideas of using it basically came down to, “Roast; eat; iterate.” I wanted to get some ideas about what would go well with the squash. Chevre was her first thought, and mushrooms, and various herbs. And brown butter sauce. She had an Asian pear at hand and pointed to just the right coloration for the butter. Hsiao-Ching or her doppleganger suggested taking it in a sweeter direction with maple syrup, I think it was, and brown sugar, but that hasn’t generally been my thing; on the other hand, I’ll have enough squash on hand to try a few things that do not immediately appeal.
I thought I might try making a delicata squash ravioli with sage and brown butter sauce. So I started by browning some butter for the first time. But I am confused. I’ve basically made a sort of ghee, as I understand it. There’s a hazelnut-colored sediment of milk protein or something that’s fallen out. Is this part of the brown butter, or is it a byproduct?
on 18 Sep 2007 at 4:24 pm 1.cissa said …
I *think* that’s browned butter, but since I’ve only made it a time or 2, I couldn’tswear I’m correct.
How may delicata squash plants did you grow? I dore the stuff, and would like to grow a sufficiency next year- but have no idea what the expected harvest would be. Help?
on 18 Sep 2007 at 4:47 pm 2.Cam Sculpin said …
I’ll have to take a look next time I’m at the P-Patch. My guess: two bush-type plants (or was it three?) placed too close together and without any care to speak of except for some very occasional watering, are producing a good dozen squashes and likely more.
on 18 Sep 2007 at 5:26 pm 3.desolina said …
a little bit of maple syrup is delicious on squash, especially if it carmelizes. it’s not too sweet if you don’t use a lot, and is a good foil for tangy dishes, sundried tomatoes, etc.
on 18 Sep 2007 at 10:29 pm 4.GPq said …
It sounds like you have it right. The couple of times I have made it I kept the liquid & tossed the precipitate. I have no idea if this was culinarily correct, but it turned out okay. Allegedly, you can resolidify it, rename it buerre noisette, and use it to make madelines; I’ve never tried this.
Personally, I like to put squash and butter under nutmeg.
on 18 Sep 2007 at 10:49 pm 5.Hsiao-Ching Chou said …
It was indeed me (Hsiao-Ching Chou) at the Chef in Residence booth. Elise was the featured chef, but it was my idea to organize the Chef in Residence program so I had to be there to run the booth. Creating such opportunities is part of what I do through my company Suzuki + Chou Communimedia. There is life after the newspaper business — and it’s pretty rockin’!
Oh, by the way, I had suggested brown sugar for squash. Maple syrup is great, too, though I would use one or the other. Each has an inherent flavor that you want to let shine.
Cheers,
Hsiao-Ching
P.S. Elise has an S.O.
on 18 Sep 2007 at 11:37 pm 6.Cam Sculpin said …
Hello, Hsiao-Ching! I enjoyed your columns, and I’m glad to hear that life after the newspaper is good. The Chef in Residence program is a lovely idea. Now that I know it exists, I’m sure I’ll be taking a lot of my dorky questions there.
The booth worked for me as a publicity device, too — I hadn’t heard of Taste (not by name, anyway) and was only vaguely aware that anything interesting was happening at SAM culinary-wise. Now I’ve checked out the website, looked at the menu, and will probably drop in for lunch some time.
I do have a lot of dorky questions. You know how some people say that cooking is all about family and tradition and so on? Well, my family cooking traditions involve things like boiling asparagus for twenty minutes. True story. Not a cooking lineage, mine. My fond childhood food memories generally feature ramen. And I know I’m not the only one in that sort of position. (Hi, GPq!)
Having that Asian pear at hand was very useful to me. Having a color chart on hand at the booth might be absurdly nerdy, but perhaps not completely unreasonable. Short of that, a pear does just fine.
Elise has an S.O.
Perhaps I should not have mentioned it. (Hey, Elise, if you’re out there Googling yourself and I’ve irritated you, drop me a line - cameron [at] sculpin.com if you’d prefer to drop it to me privately - and I’ll scrub it.)
Er, good?
on 19 Sep 2007 at 9:54 pm 7.Elise Fineberg said …
Hello!
I am honored to have been mentioned in your blog. So regarding brown butter, here’s the scoop:
- Butter is basically made of 3 things: fat, milk solids, and water.
- When you are “browning” the butter, you are both caramelizing the milk solids and evaporating the water. (The hazelnut-colored sediment that you saw was the caramelized milk solids and shouldn’t be removed.)
- What you’re left with is brown butter or as the French call it “beurre noisette.”It’s true that some recipes for madeleines call for brown butter. In fact, for any recipe that calls for melted butter you can substitute brown butter if you want that nutty flavor imparted.
So, you did make brown butter. Right on!
By the way, regarding the “hot” comment - - - absolutely no worries.
Best,
Elise Fineberg