…were supposed to be crostinis…

but I was too forgetful lazy rushed famished to take the time to toast my baguette slices!  February’s Improv Cooking Challenge theme chosen by our leader Kristen was “Bread and Butter.” Sounds like a simple task, unless bread is your most favorite food group in all the world but now you’re gluten free and you haven’t found a bread recipe you can accept as a favorable substitute for your most favorite food group in all the world…I’ve long been a fan of Bob’s Red Mill products. Most of the flours and starches I buy are from his extensive line. I even use the many gluten free recipes on the site. I decided this was the time to try his bread mix.So glad I did! The bread was quite delicious & had a very nice texture. (thought I had taken a pic of the 2 baguettes, sorry… was in too much of a hurry to taste before dark!)So… that brings us to the recipe part of this post – my Sweet Red Wine Compound Butter. You will love me, forever! It is soooooo simple, but it tastes like a million dollars. It’s so easy a cave man could do it (if he knew how to milk a cow or stomp grapes) but makes the carnivore’s dream steak taste even dreamier! Beurre composé is what the French call this “finishing butter”.Serendipitously, I found this most delicious sweet red on sale at my local Sprouts. I poured a cup of it into my saucepan. (I might or might not have had a glass while cooking to ensure the flavor appropriate…)I stirred in a tablespoon each of freshly cracked pepper and minced garlic. Then I left the saucepan on a very low simmer for about an hour. It. smelled. incredible. the. entire. time.After the reduction cooled completely, it was scraped into the mixing bowl of room temperature butter. (You may use unsalted butter, but then you’d have to add a pinch of salt.) I beat the mixture until everybody was all happy together.I divided it and made two rolls. I wrapped them with plastic cling and stuck them in the freezer.You should stop reading here if you’re hungry. Just take my recipe and go your way.
But if you wish to see how I served up my bread & butter, keep reading to the end…Bread & butter might be a meal for some, but not for my household of carnivores!
Here are my baguette slices – fresh from the oven…

We top that with a bit of sliced mushrooms & onions, sautéed with a touch of our compound butter.Do you see what I did there?Yes, that is grilled and thinly sliced New York strip!And yes, I am going to eat it right before your eyes…close-up!Playing with the camera means the steak is now too cool to melt the butter; so this platter gets a quick flash under the broiler.

We loved this butter! So far we’ve tried it out on baked potatoes and then on scrambled eggs. No disappointments so far…

If you’d like to see some more bread & butter recipes, check out these links: