‘This is, quite frankly, my dream book. Buttery bliss from cover to cover’ Nigella Lawson
‘The last word on butter. Everyone who cooks needs this book’ Diana Henry
Swirled into hot sugar to create a silken, smoky caramel, or browned until nutty and speckled before being folded through cake batter or buttercream. Dotted on to vegetables before roasting or braising, stirred through rice after cooking. Butter won’t just transform your individual dishes, but will transform your way of cooking
Butter: A Celebration is a joyous immersion in all things butter, revelling in its alchemical power to transform almost any dish, from good to transcendent.
Award-winning food writer Olivia Potts takes us on a grand tour of butter and its many varied applications, from old school chicken Kiev to mille-feuille, from oysters Rockefeller to saffron and yoghurt tahdig. This is a book to be savoured for its wonderful writing, as well as for its irresistible recipes and expert introduction to patisserie, too. Full of history, anecdotes and, of course, delicious recipes resplendent with butter, it includes:
*Turkish eggs with yoghurt and chill butter
*Butter-basted rib eye steak
*Steamed artichoke with anchovy butter
*Grilled kippers with horseradish butter
*Buttermilk pancakes
*Sticky gingerbread
*French salted butter biscuits
*Brioche feuilletée
*Damson plum crumble
Praise for A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts:
‘Uplifting’ Prue Leith
‘Wit and warmth on every page’ The Times
‘An utterly beautiful, moving, bittersweet book. I loved it’ Dolly Alderton
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Reviews
This is, quite frankly, my dream book. Buttery bliss from cover to cover.
The last word on butter. Everyone who cooks needs this book.
A love letter to the household staple.
An uplifting tribute to the singular power of butter to elevate any dish, whether basted onto juicy grilled scallops or drizzled over brioche.
Olivia's book walks through the fundamentals of cooking with butter . . . then ventures into recipes and techniques to bring the best out of butter and transform your cooking.
Butter is a mighty subject and Olivia Potts knows more than a thing or two about it. This kind of book can be daunting for both author and reader - there's so much to cover - but Potts has been masterful in her choice of recipes and the techniques she focuses on. Her voice is warm, never dry or instructional. As she stands by your side in the kitchen, she makes even the most complicated buttery confection seem possible. If you've always wanted to get to grips with butter - to understand how it works - this book is essential. I'll be working my way through it.
It takes a certain chutzpah to write an entire cookbook dedicated to butter, but Olivia Potts carries it off. Her devotion to the yellow fat is endearing. In a collection of excellent recipes and essays she makes the case for more buttery delight in our lives. As she explains, butter has the power to transform the flavour and texture of countless dishes, from mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs to lobster rolls and tarte au citron.