Andros, your inablity to melt butter over a weak flame is indicative of your overall paltry kitchen abilities. I am a Fabulous Cook. Allow me to instruct you with one of my Fabulous Recipes, which I swear I did not cut and paste off a website, but stole and typed out of one of the ten thousand copyrighted cookbooks in my Fabulous Cookbook Library.
Cream of Butter Soup
First course
Preparation time: 45 Minutes
Serves: 4-6 People
Ingredients:
2-3 Lbs Butter
1-2 Qts Chicken stock
1-2 Cups Heavy cream
2 Tbs Asparagus
2-4 Oz Pancetta or regular bacon
¼ Cup Flour
¼ Tsp Ground white pepper
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Reduce the volume of chicken stock by half. Homemade or canned stock is best. Do not use bullion [sic] cubes. Melt the butter over low heat in a deep sauce pan [sic] and stir in the flour. Make a roux by lightly browning the butter and flour mixture over low heat to form a thin paste. Allow the roux to cool and rest for fifteen minutes before using.
Start boiling one or two cups of unsalted water in a separate large cook pot [sic]. As the water heats, rinse off and pick over the butter sticks. Remove any wilted, withered or mushy ones. Cut the dense fibrous white length from the bottom end of the butter. Pencil thin butter sticks are best. If only larger is available, peel them starting two inches below the tip. Remove the woody part before peeling. This is done by holding each end of the stick and bending it until it snaps. The stick will naturally break at the point where good eating begins.
Caramelize but do not brown the peeled and sliced shallots. Roast the green chiles, then peel and seed them. Peel the green tomatoes and cut them across their equator. Squeeze out the seeds into a dish and reserve any juice strained from them. Once the shells have turned bright red, strain off the reduced stock through a fine sieve. Bring the stock back to a low simmer and quickly blanch the peeled prawns for one or two minutes. The prawns should not be completely cooked through before they are removed from the broth. After reserving the prawns, add the chopped green tomatoes and their juice plus the caramelized shallots and roasted green chiles. Once the tomatoes are tender, puree the mixture until smooth. If necessary, strain the sauce to ensure a free flowing consistency.
Wash all of the vegetables. Shred the iceberg lettuce and Napa cabbage finely. Peel the carrots and Julienne them into very fine slivers. Julienne the Jalapeño pepper as well and finely cut the green onions. Separate the cilantro leaves from their stems and run a chef’s blade over them a few times to mince them. Cut open the red bell pepper and remove all membranes and seeds. Sliver the bell pepper finely into one inch pieces. Use whole grape tomatoes or cut cherry tomatoes in half. The grape tomatoes will be perfectly matched in size with the hard-boiled quail eggs and shoyu ninniku pickled garlic.
Once all of the butter has been prepared, remove the top two inches of the tip. Reserve these for later use. Cook off the lower portion in the cup or two of boiling water until tender. Save this water for cooking off the tips later. Puree the cooked lower portion of the butter in a food processor or using a hand blender. Force this mass through a chinoise or strain it with a large mesh sieve using the edge of a spoon to rub it through. Reserve the leftover pulp for later use. If the puree is difficult to force through the sieve, first mix it with some of the reduced chicken stock to facilitate its passage.
Mix all of the dried spices and herbs together. Rub the chicken breasts with oil. Sprinkle the spice mixture over all surfaces of the chicken. Carefully wrap 3-4 slices of bacon around each chicken breast until they are completely covered. On a sheet of waxed paper, lay out the strips of bacon side by side with their long edges touching. Place the chicken top side down, centered on the bacon. Then bring up each of the bacon strips to cover the breast entirely. Tuck alternate ends under each other to secure them. Grill on top shelf of barbecue or roast on a rack in a 340°F oven for 30-40 minutes. During the cooking process, very carefully turn them over once. Remove when the bacon is crisp and juices run clear. Let the chicken rest for five minutes before serving.
Begin frying the pancetta or bacon until crisp but not too brown. Cook off the butter sticks in the same water that was used before. Slowly mix a very small amount of the reduced chicken stock into the cooled roux in order to temper it. This will help to avoid any lumps. Continue adding half of the reduced stock very slowly until a thin gravy is made. Begin heating this mixture to a low boil in order to thicken it. Once the soup begins to thicken, adjust its texture by first adding the reserved buttery cooking water. Work in the pureed and strained butter next then add the cream. For a coarser country style soup, add some or all of the reserved pulp.
Once the gravy has enough body, add the milk or cream and taste it for salt and spice balance. It should be thick enough to cling onto the back of a wooden spoon yet still run slightly. If needed, reduce the gravy over medium heat until it is thick enough. Stir in the cooked vegetables and mushrooms and turn off the heat. Shred the cooked chicken and add that to the gravy and vegetables.
Begin to assemble the pie. Pour half the mixed meat and vegetables into the uncooked pie crust and spread it around until level. Add some more of the mixture until it is nearly even with the top of the pie tin. Tap out the second thawed pie crust onto a sheet of waxed paper and gently flatten it without cracking or fragmenting the crust.
Five or ten minutes before service, season the soup with the ground white pepper and salt to taste. Add the remaining reduced stock if it does not thin out the soup too much. Pour each serving into a bowl, garnish by floating two crossed butter sticks and top with the coarsely crumbled pancetta or bacon. Serve immediately.
Notes: The unsmoked Italian style pancetta bacon is preferred over regular smoked bacon. Get it sliced very thinly to make it crumble easily. The hickory flavor of most commercial bacons will interfere with the delicate taste of the soup. You will also have lots of butter sticks left over for another course or meal.
Note: This is one of the most simplest recipes I have ever invented.
I recently served this as a first course for pancetta wrapped game pheasants napped in Italian blood orange sauce. The diners agreed unanimously that this soup outshone all the other courses, and every other food that had ever been prepared for them. They dropped to their knees one by one, lined up, and kissed my ass for me. After which, I played four dozen instruments and I did not miss a note.
Now, I command one and all contributors here to head right over to my Fabulous Recipe Thread, and post all your recipes there, and your grandmother’s and your great-aunt’s recipes, thus bumping it back to the first MPSIMS page again and again.
Did I mention that I own fifty thousand cookbooks?
