Lekker: Sriracha Butter

Look, I really don't care who you are or what you think you've done, you haven't lived yet until you've had sriracha butter.

It's true.

Even though Google is putting that squiggly little red line underneath "sriracha" like it's not a real word, it totally is and if you haven't heard of it yet (have you been living under a rock?) it's an Asian hot sauce. It's the one in the bottle with the cock on it.

No, seriously.

See?

My coworker Monkey Boy never shuts up about this stuff, he'll put it on everything--burgers, eggs, vegetables, open wounds, whatever. I on the other hand am honestly not much of a spicy-loving person; I don't see the point of torching your mouth to tatters during a meal. Why?!

This stuff is different--the perfect balance of spice, smokiness, kick and rich flavour that truly does go with just about everything. I particularly love it on eggs, as THIS, sriracha butter. The original recipe is from food goddess and source of all everything Martha Stewart, but I use anchovy paste to make my life simpler so here's how I make it:

Sriracha Butter
Makes 1 stick of butters' worth. Because you're using 1 stick of butter.That's how this works.

What You Need
1 stick of butter, softened (if you use unsalted like I usually do since that's what I have around for baking, make sure to add salt to taste too; the BEST butter and the king of ALL butters is Kerry Gold Irish Butter, so if you really want to be stellar you should use that)
1 clove of garlic, minced (yes, it's *raw* garlic in the butter; are you really gonna make that into a problem? If you're that afraid of raw garlic and your breath or whatever, you could sautee it for a few seconds I guess but now you're just making your life complicated--just have your boyfriend or whatever eat the same stuff and presto, you guys can both stink...although personally, I can't get down with someone who doesn't like garlic in the first place and that's a pretty real barometer of how I choose to date people.)
1 good squeeze from a tube of anchovy paste (God here we go again with the need for actual measurements...okay, I'd say I probably use about 1/2 a teaspoon. It doesn't taste fishy AT ALL, I promise--anchovy paste just adds an awesome depth of flavour to pretty much anything you care to throw it in.)
1 tablespoon sriracha/rooster sauce
Couple of turns from a fresh pepper grinder

What You Do
Mush it all together with a fork. Presto! Don't you love easy recipes? Impressive with so little effort.

As I said, I love this on eggs--I make an open faced fried egg sammich with two slices of whole wheat toast smothered in sriracha butter. On one side I layer a sliced avocado with plenty of salt with the egg on top; on the other side I stack fresh tomatoes topped with shredded Cheddar cheese and the other fried egg. Heaven. I've had this schmeared on corn too--also heaven. On steak? RIDICULOUS. Asparagus? You know it.

On steak. Oh yeah.