Most people meet matcha in a cup and never take it anywhere else. In a kitchen it behaves like any other bitter green thing: it wants fat, salt, and something sharp next to it.
Butter gives it all three at once.
This is a compound butter. You mix it, roll it, chill it, and then it sits in the fridge doing nothing until you need it. Slice a coin off and drop it on something hot. It melts into corn, into rice, into the skin of a roast chicken, onto bread that just came out of the oven. Ten minutes of work buys you two weeks of dinners that taste like you tried harder than you did.
The recipe (Makes one log, about 12 to 14 slices)
- 225g unsalted butter, soft enough to press a finger into but not melting
- 4g culinary matcha (about 2 teaspoons), sifted
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
- Zest of half a lemon
- Optional: 1 tablespoon shio koji
Sift the matcha. This is not optional and it is the step everyone skips. Matcha clumps, and a clump in butter stays a clump forever. Push it through a fine sieve onto the butter.
Work it together. A fork and a bowl is fine. A stand mixer with the paddle is faster. Keep going past the point where it looks done, because matcha streaks hide well and you want the colour even the whole way through. Two minutes, roughly.
Taste it. Now, before it is cold. Butter mutes salt as it chills, so it should taste very slightly over-salted at room temperature.
Roll it. Scrape the butter onto parchment or cling film in a rough line, fold the paper over, and use the edge of a tray or a ruler to push it into a tight cylinder. Twist the ends like a sweet wrapper.
Chill for at least two hours. Overnight is better. The lemon and salt need time to move through it.
If you are using shio koji, cut the flaky salt to half a teaspoon. Koji brings its own salt and a fair amount of water, so the butter will be softer and will not slice as cleanly. Worth it for the depth it adds to anything grilled.
