Miso butter!!!

About six months ago, I went with friends to the vegetarian restaurant Yellow for dinner. I’m not really one for fancy restaurants, particularly ones that you have to book months in advance (who can think that far ahead) and then also give up your credit card details so if you don’t show up you get charged the price of your meal anyway, but Yellow changed that. It was a special once in a blue moon event and the food was… incredible… intricately crafted, high end restaurant food that just happened to be vegetarian. We chose the five course tasting menu which was another revelation, it took away the palaver of the entire table trying to decide what to order, and it so relaxing just having the courses come out in a timely, elegant manner. My favourite plate was a butternut pumpkin, miso butter with saltbush dish, it was so good I had to stop myself from licking the plate. Usually when I have something I love out, I try and deconstruct it and google recipes later to make it at home but this time I didn’t bother. I just enjoyed the restaurant experience because I knew I was never going to re-create this food at home. The only note I made was that if I ever came across saltbush I would snap it up because it was freaking delicious.

Then a couple of months ago when I was in Melbourne shopping at Terra Madre, my favourite whole foods grocery shop in the world, I bought a jar of Meru miso and bought it back to Sydney. It languished in the refrigerator for about a month until my partner and I discovered it was delicious on buttered toast. I was happily eating my miso and butter on toast one morning and it triggered a memory of the  pumpkin, miso butter and saltbush from Yellow.  I had a lightbulb moment, maybe miso butter was just miso, plus butter and it wasn’t beyond my capabilities to recreate it at home.

When I googled miso butter recipes it was like Duh! Everybody has known about miso butter for years. How could I have missed it, seriously, I need to get out more. But if, by some miracle, you haven’t heard about miso butter, you need to know about it now.  It’ll change your life or at least light it up in a serious way. You can use miso butter in scrambled eggs, with mushrooms, roasted vegetables or fish but it’s also fantastic on steamed vegetables and turns a simple plate of broccoli or beans into something quite special.

The only problem is, since discovering Meru miso no other miso will do. We ripped through the original jar and have to buy another jar at vastly inflated Sydney prices. I always justify extravagant food purchases with the teetotaler defense, which is, since I don’t spend money on wine I shouldn’t feel guilty about spending it on any other frivolities.

Miso Butter

Most miso recipes seem to have a 2 – 1 ratio of butter to miso. You can experiment with different miso but I prefer the white Shiro miso.

Soften four tablespoons of butter to two tablespoons of miso and mix well. Add some freshly ground black pepper if desired. Miso butter will keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for at least two weeks. You can also freeze it for up to three months.