Chorizo butter

Ingredients Butter, chorizo.

Preparation: 10 minutes (plus 5 hours for chilling)

You know how it goes, it's almost Christmas and you've either run out of money or run out of ideas and desperately decide to bake biscuits or make chutneys or jam as extra Christmas presents. Not that chutneys and jam and biscuits are bad Christmas presents - I'd far rather receive some biscuits made with love than something shop-bought and full of preservatives and additives - but for most people it's a hassle to organise during an already pressured time of year.
Well enter clarified, flavoured butter. For the meat-lover in your life, this will make the most fabulous bacon sandwich bread spread they've ever had. And for roasting potato wedges? Fuhgeddaboudit! Delicious. And all it takes is 10 minutes, a pan, a knife and some kilner jars.

1) Slice and dice your chorizo (it's up to you what ratio you use to butter - I tend to use about 1/4 of a chorizo per 500g of butter but even if you only have a knobby end of chorizo left, you can still render a surprising amount of colour and flavour out of it!) and add it to a cold pan.

2) Gently heat it, dry until some of the fat begins to seep out, then add the butter. Taking a spatula, stir constantly as the butter begins to melt and the chorizo begins to sizzle.

3) Do not allow the butter to burn, turn down the heat once it begins to sizzle.

4) After around 2 minutes, pour the butter through a sieve to separate the chorizo pieces and then scoop off the "froth" that you will see on the surface of the butter.

5) Pour the now clarified butter into your kilner jars and seal. Chill in the fridge and dish them out as presents!