Shallot Red Wine Finishing Butter

My Dad used to buy herb butter for grilled meats, it was intensely flavored, fresh herbs, some garlic and salt and would melt wonderfully when placed onto a chicken breast or steak, hot off the coals. In my quest to recreate that elusive aroma from the past, I have come up with quite a range of flavoring and finishing butters (some good, some nah, I will spare you those). This one works well on chicken, roasted potatoes or salmon. And I am sure once you make it, you will find some other creative uses for it as well. What is your favorite way of using finishing butters?

Ingredients

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp butter, softened
2 md Shallots, finely minced (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup)
1/2 cup red wine (such as a Cabernet Sauv or a Côte du Rhône, don’t use anything sweet)
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

In a small sauce pan, melt the table spoon of butter, add the shallots and cook over low until softened, not browned.
Add the wine and salt, simmer until the liquid is reduced by more than half and starts to become thick and sauce like. Add the parsley, and cook for a further 2 minutes over low. Remove from heat, let cool slightly ( it can still be somewhat warm, but not hot for the next step)
Add the saucepan content into the softened butter and stir to incorporate completely. Your goal is not melt the butter, but mix the flavorings into the softened, malleable butter.
Press into silicon ice cube molds and freeze until firm or chill in the fridge for a little, then form into 1 1/2″ to 2″ rolls on wax paper, refrigerate until completely firm and slice into portion sized disks, store in the freezer.

Note: If you pre portion the flavoring butter, you will only need to remove what you use from the fridge and don’t have to worry about the rest warming up and re freezing each time you use it.

Note: In these pictures, I reduced the wine too much (the phone rang 🙁 ) and the shallots absorbed all of it, and the parsley became all but invisible . The flavor is great, but it looks a tad different when you do it right, will post some updated pictures next time I make this. Usually the whole butter takes on the color

Home made, no nothing artificial (that’s why we store it in the freezer, no preservatives that make it stay ‘good’ for a ridiculous amount of time.