Mr. and Mrs Spratt

I am referring to the old nursery rhyme that goes something like this:

"Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean
So between them both you see, they licked the platter clean."

I will bet you that there are "compound" dishes out there, where you like part of the item, but not all of it. Years ago, as a very small boy, I remember a cupcake that was devils food, with a clog of "creme" in the middle, and a pink, marshmallow coating with coconut on it. The pink stuff could come off like a coat. That's the part I ate. I never ate the cupcakes. I could easily go through six or seven of them, eating all of the pink and leaving the chocolate. That was fine for us, because my sisters loved the chocolate part, so we had a good deal going - until Mother found out about it. To this day, I don't understand what the problem was, since we were finishing everything, albeit untraditionally. Oh well.

And of course, you have them, too. I remember a comic strip once where someone goes into the fridge after Thanksgiving, looking for leftovers, and finds "a bowl of sweet potatoes with the marshmallows eaten off the top." And how many of you eat the muffin top and toss the bottom? Or eat the crunch layer on macaroni and cheese and leave the soft stuff? Or peel away the cheese on a piece of pizza and dump the crust (I don't blame you with most pizza). You get the idea.

I began thinking about this concept after two thoughts came together in my head, both of which related to snails. Some time ago, when having lunch with our friends Ken and Craig, Ken remarked that his favorite way of eating mushrooms was in the style of escargot. Now, that threw me for a loop, and I began wondering what he meant. Yes, mushrooms sort of have the texture of snails, but I don't think that's what he meant. I didn't try to look up the recipe, but I was intrigued. I had never heard of "in the style of snails."

Then, last week, the New York Times published a recipe and a story about snail butter.

Ok, lets have those of you who admit to liking snails, answer this question: do you like the snails? NO. You like the soft butter they come in, and taking French bread and dipping it in and just sopping it up. If someone asked "would Monsieur/Madame prefer a bowl of butter and bread without zee snails?" I can imagine a very broad, smiling face saying "OUI OUI." I certainly would.

So, now the thought was complete: perhaps Ken was talking about the butter used to cook the mushrooms.

I had never thought about deconstructing the standard recipe for snails, to make the butter for something else, but here it was right in front of me. And I HAVE written about compound butters before. So, I gave it a try, with the squid that the recipe talked about.

Let me say this at the start: squid is one of those EWWWWWWWWWWWWW foods. So don't make this with squid if it's that way for you. Put the butter on cod. Or on vegetables. Or just make toast. Now that tomatoes are fully into season, I am seriously considering making this butter, spreading it on some grilled bread, and piling tomato confit on it, not that the confit needs any help. Nonetheless....

So, I'm going to give you the recipe as it was presented, with one change. In making the butter, the recipe calls for pernod, or some other anise flavored liqueur. Were I making this solely for myself, I would have used it. But this is one of those flavors where, honestly, those of us who like them are in the minority. Even amongst people who love licorice as a candy, the anisey liqueurs are not well received. So I used lemon juice instead. Substitute as you like.

Also, in writing about the squid, the recipe called for splitting them open, lengthwise, and grilling them flat. I did not do that, and should have. My squid were very small, and I thought I wouldn't need to. I forgot that when they heat up, squid "puff". So I had squid bodies basically turning into little balloons on my grill, and I needed a heavy pan to put on top of them to hold them down. It was no big deal, but you don't want to be surprised. Also, remember that squid give off a LOT of liquid, and they shrink. A pound is just about enough for two people. The butter makes more than enough, so you can use it for more than one thing.

Here goes.

To make the butter, put a big handful of parsley leaves in a food processor (the precise quanity is 1/4 cup, which ain't nuthin. Use a lot.), with the juice of a lemon, a chopped shallot (the recipe said two teaspoons. I guestimated that one large shallot would do this), 3/4 teaspoon of salt (you MAY want to cut this back to 1/2 teaspoon), a few turns of fresh black pepper, sliced garlic (coming back to this), and a stick of softened, unsalted butter. On the garlic: this recipe called for four cloves. When I looked at the cloves from my farmers' market garlic, they were huge. So I cut it in half, and it was STILL only for garlic lovers. What I would suggest is that you start with one nice sized clove, and after you've finished, taste it. If you want more garlic, add more and process it again. All you're going to do with the ingredients is whirl them in the food processor until you've got a green flecked paste. Put this in the fridge for when you need it.

If you're using squid, get a pound of it, and pat it really, REALLY dry. This is important. You don't have to cut up the tentacles, but DO split the bodies so that they lie flat. Mix them with a good tablespoon or so of olive oil and some salt (this is why you want to consider cutting back the salt on the butter. My finished dish was on the salty side).

Get a frying pan, or a grill pan ready. You don't need to oil it. When it's hot, put the squid into it, trying not to have the pieces overlap. If you see excess puffing, put something heavy on them. You won't need more than about a minute and a half to a side. Turn them, and after both sides are done, toss them in a bowl with a big hunk of the butter you just made.

And that's it. We had it with the okra vegetable dish I described a few entries back. I left the cream out, because of all the butter and olive oil in the squid (balance is everything, chickens).

With the exception of the saltiness, this is a dish I would come back to again. Certainly with the butter. I have about half of it left over, and I do see it being used in the future. Maybe on green beans, maybe in a risotto, but somewhere.

I wonder if I could find some of those snowballs again.