Miso butter

So simple, so versitile

Miso is an ingredient that most amateur cooks avoid. Understandably, you can go wrong if your not sure what your doing. I've been cooking with miso for more than 15 years and I still feel I've only scratched the surface of its possibilities.

This is a perfect introduction and in these times of isolation when everything in your fridge is starting to look and taste the same there is no better time to try it.

In the restaurant we serve it slathered on grilled corn or occasionally drizzled on a scallop or my favourite of all on grilled maitake mushrooms. At home it goes on everything! - basted over a roast chicken, melted over grilled fish, oven baked vegetables, anything that needs a pimp.

Basic recipe

250grams unsalted butter {1 pack}

1 clove garlic

85 grams white miso.

The miso for this recipe is the simple light coloured miso you will find in supermarkets. You can use a darker miso but will need to reduce the amounts as its a tad saltier.

Leave the butter out at room temperature for an hour or so then scrape it into a bowl.

The garlic basically needs to be pureed so your best bet is to chop it as small as possible and then sprinkle a few grains of salt on it and work it into a paste by crushing it with the side of your knife. Put this in the bowl with your butter, add the miso and mix everything with a fork until thoroughly mixed the colour is uniform.

Top tip - keep any leftover in the freezer, it will deteriorate in a fridge.

That's your basic recipe. Feel free to add other ingredients to enhance it even further - grated lemon zest which is great on grilled fish, fine chopped ginger on a pork chop, chopped pine nuts on boiled broccoli.....you get the drift.