Special butter

Ingredients Butter, caster sugar, your choice of flavouring (suggested: lavender, rose, vanilla, cinnamon

Preparation: 5 minutes + 2 hours refrigeration

Butter, ah butter. James Martin's soul mate it may be but most of us live in the real world where heart disease and obesity are concerns which have us reaching for the margarine or olive oil spread instead. Sometimes though, indulgence is necessary and here's where special butter comes in. I flavour mine with cinnamon, with lavender, with rose, with vanilla... whether you perch it atop a stack of pancakes, spread it on scones or give it as a gift, it's a lovely treat indeed.

1) Using room temperature butter, combine it with sugar at a ratio of 1/2 tsp per 30 grams of butter. The quantity you make is entirely up to you, I like to mould mine into shapes but this can easily be set in a regular pat or a dish. 

2) Add the flavouring of your choice and leave to set in the fridge.

For rose butter: to 60g of butter I added 6 dried rosebuds, roughly torn.
For lavender butter: to 60g of butter I added 1/2 a tsp of dried lavender.
For cinnamon butter: to 60g of butter I added 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
For vanilla butter: to 60g of butter I added 1 vanilla pod

Vanilla & tomato soup

Ingredients   2 lbs tomatoes, 1 pint vegetable stock, vanilla pod, 1/2 onion, butter.

Serves: 2 preparation: 30 minutes


i know this sounds unusual but tomato and strawberry can be interchangeable in salads and sandwiches - both go successfully with most of the same ingredients and in this case, vanilla brings out the spiciness of tomato in the way that it brings out the sweetness of strawberry.


1) Peel and finely dice the onions and sautee in a little butter.

2) Once the onions are soft, slice the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds. Stir the tomatoes into the onions and add the vegetable stock.

3) Slice the vanilla pod in half and use the knife to scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the pod to the pan and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

4) Strain the tomatoes, vanilla pod and onions from the liquid using a sieve and pass the tomato flesh through the sieve into the liquid, leaving the onions and skin in the sieve. Discard the contents of the sieve.

4) Stir the liquid and return to the hob, season well and simmer for a further 10 minutes before serving.