A couple of days ago, a friend of mine messaged me to tell me he had started making his own butter.
I dismissed it as a very complicated process, and images of him sat in his garden with an old fashioned churner came to mind.
I was wrong. All you need is some heavy cream, a whisk (ideally electric), some iced water and about 15 free minutes, which most of us have at the moment. Et voila, butter.
I had no idea that butter is essentially just over-whipped cream (which I'm sure will make my mum tut and then ask if I actually know anything about food). But hey, every day is, as they say, a school day.
What do you need to make butter?
The list of equipment is almost as short as the ingredients list. You will need:
- A whisk. Note: I used a stand mixer, which I appreciate will have made it easier, but an electric hand whisk or standard whisk and a lot of elbow grease will get the job done
- A sieve
- Two bowls
- A spatula or wooden spoon
- A jug of iced water
The ingredients you need are simply:
- Heavy cream (the higher the fat content, the better the butter)
- Salt (optional and to taste)
- Anything else you want to flavour your butter with
- And, of course, as above, the iced water
Method:
- Pour 300ml of heavy cream into a mixing bowl, and begin mixing. Start on low and gradually work your way up in speed if your mixer has the option to.
- Add the desired amount of salt – this is entirely to taste and depends if you want to use your butter to bake, or not. I added about 1 tsp for a noticeably salty taste.
- Keep whisking at a high speed, I left my cream mixing for 12 minutes. It went from looking like thick whipped cream to a collapsed whipped cream to separated scrambled eggs. When it's at the latter stage, with distinct solids and a liquid, you can stop.
- Spoon the contents of your mixing bowl into a sieve over a bowl. You will notice that a liquid separates out into the bowl, that is buttermilk, put it to one side (it's worth keeping). In the sieve you will be left with your solid butter.
- When you're satisfied that all of the buttermilk is out, move the sieve full of butter onto a second bowl and pour iced water over it to rinse and ensure absolutely all of the buttermilk is gone. You can do this by hand, by squeezing the butter (which will be easy to ball up at this stage), or by pressing it down with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- When all of the liquid is gone, you are done. Transfer the butter to a small dish to keep it in, the butter will store in your fridge for up to six weeks.
The 300ml of cream I used produced 125g of fresh butter.
What is buttermilk?
Arguably, the best part of this entire process is the buttermilk by-product, as it can be quite hard to get your hands on in UAE supermarkets. So be sure to sieve your freshly churned butter over a bowl and get every last millilitre of buttermilk you can.
Buttermilk is a fermented dairy product, the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream. It is a low-fat, tart, acidic product, which makes it a great cooking ingredient.
The acid tenderises meat, which is why it is often called for in fried or roasted chicken recipes. It also works to kick-start baking soda, which makes it great in pancake and soda bread recipes, resulting in a well-risen and light finished product. The sour taste also lends itself well to creamy sauces and salad dressings, or fruit smoothies.
Now, if you need me, I will be splitting my time between making unnecessary slices of toast, dreaming up creative butter flavours and making batches of buttermilk pancakes or fried chicken.
The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
23-man shortlist for next six Hall of Fame inductees
Tony Adams, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Eric Cantona, Andrew Cole, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Matt Le Tissier, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, John Terry, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic, Patrick Viera, Ian Wright.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
2pm Handicap (PA) Dh85,000 1,800m
Winner AF Al Baher, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer).
2.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh75,000 1,400m
Winner Alla Mahlak, Fabrice Veron, Rashed Bouresly.
3pm Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner Davy Lamp, Adrie de Vries, Rashed Bouresly.
3.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 1,400m
Winner Ode To Autumn, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
4pm Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 1,950m
Winner Arch Gold, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
4.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh75,000 1,800m
Winner Meqdam, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
5pm Handicap (TB) Dh90,000 1,800m
Winner Native Appeal, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.
5.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh75,000 1,400m
Winner Amani Pico, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
The view from The National
Match info
Athletic Bilbao 0
Real Madrid 1 (Ramos 73' pen)
Turning%20waste%20into%20fuel
%3Cp%3EAverage%20amount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20at%20DIC%20factory%20every%20month%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EApproximately%20106%2C000%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EAmount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20from%201%20litre%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%20%3Cstrong%3E920ml%20(92%25)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETime%20required%20for%20one%20full%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%20used%20cooking%20oil%20to%20biofuel%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EOne%20day%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EEnergy%20requirements%20for%20one%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%201%2C000%20litres%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%96%AA%20Electricity%20-%201.1904%20units%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Water-%2031%20litres%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Diesel%20%E2%80%93%2026.275%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
