Summer Staple: Serrano Compound Butter

By Jessica

 

Compound butter sounds super fancy doesn't it? Like something that would require crazy cooking knowledge or a lot of sweat and tears in the kitchen? It totally doesn't, though, I promise! If you've got a food processor and 5 minutes, you are well on your way to making what has become an addiction in our house (we seem to have A LOT of food addictions around here). I came up with this recipe for some grilled corn but I've used the leftover butter to sautée other veggies and that was super tasty as well. I've also seen compound butters served on top of steaks in swanky restaurants, so that's an option for you too. 

Serrano Compound Butter with Grilled Corn

1 stick unsalted butter (4 oz) slightly softened 

1 serrano chile chopped (I left the seeds and membrane in, but we like things a little spicy around here, remove them if you aren't into heat)

1/8-1/4 tsp ancho chile powder 

2 small pinches kosher salt

1/2-3/4 tsp minced garlic

freshly cracked black pepper

1 lime wedged into eighths

finely ground parmesan cheese or fresh cotija cheese crumbled

Corn

In your food processor combine everything but the corn, lime and the cheese. Pulse several times until the butter has softened completely down and all ingredients are evenly combined. Using a spatula (I use one of those silicone types) scoop all the butter from your processor and put into another vessel of your choice to chill the butter down. You can put this mixture onto wax paper or cling film and force it into a log shape if you want to have disks of butter later but I usually just put it into a ramekin. 

For the grilled corn, I don't do anything special to prep it and we've done this recipe with frozen mini ears, frozen full sized and the fresh, sweet, yellow and white corn. We've also done this on the charcoal grill as well as the George Foreman. Anyway you get the grill taste into it is fine (although I will mention the charcoal grill is the best IMO because the smokey taste really adds something over all) but the George Foreman usually can't get the frozen cooked all the way through, so you'll have to either par-boil it first or finish it off in the microwave after, either way.

Once the corn is cooked. slather it up with your compound butter, making sure that you get a good coating of all the tasty bits. Now squeeze some lime generously over the top and sprinkle it with the cheese. The final step is to try not to look like a disgusting glutton as you devour it, but I usually fail that one. 

{Photo credits: me}