Benihana Garlic Butter

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This is the compound butter that goes onto the teppanyaki grill under the steak and the fried rice, and it is one of the easiest restaurant things to reproduce — provided you do not use raw garlic.

Raw garlic in butter is aggressive and stays that way. Allicin, the compound that makes raw garlic sharp, forms when the cloves are cut and does not mellow just because it is sitting in fat. What you get is a butter with a hot, acrid edge that gets worse over a couple of days rather than better.

Roasting the garlic first converts those compounds into sweeter, milder ones. It is a different ingredient by the time it goes in.

Roasting the garlic

Whole head, top sliced off, a splash of oil, wrapped in foil, 200°C for 40 minutes. The cloves should be soft enough to squeeze out like paste and taste sweet and nutty rather than sharp.

If you are short on time, gently frying minced garlic in a little butter over a low heat for five minutes gets you most of the way. Do not let it colour past pale gold — burnt garlic is bitter and there is no rescuing it.

The 24 hours

Compound butter needs a day. Fat takes up aromatic compounds slowly, and a butter tasted an hour after mixing tastes like butter with garlic in it rather than garlic butter.

A full day in the fridge is when it becomes one thing. This is unglamorous and it is the whole difference.

What you need

• 225 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 whole head of garlic, roasted
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley (optional)

Method

1. 1. Roast the garlic and let it cool completely. **Warm garlic melts the butter and you lose the texture.**
2. 2. Squeeze the cloves out and mash to a smooth paste with a fork.
3. 3. Beat the softened butter until light.
4. 4. Add the garlic paste, soy, lemon, white pepper and salt. Beat until fully combined.
5. 5. Roll into a log in baking parchment or press into a small pot.
6. 6. Refrigerate 24 hours before using.

The soy sauce

A tablespoon is not enough to taste as soy. It is there for glutamates — savoury depth that reads as "restaurant" without announcing itself — and for the small amount of salt it brings.

White pepper rather than black, for the same reason it is used across Japanese-American cooking: it gives heat without the black flecks and has a slightly floral note that suits this better.

How to use it

On steak, a slice melting on top as it rests.

In fried rice, a tablespoon in the pan before the rice goes in, which is what Benihana do.

On vegetables, tossed through while hot.

On bread, which is not authentic and is the best use of the leftovers.

Storing

Two weeks in the fridge, wrapped tightly. It picks up other fridge smells easily, so wrap it properly.

Three months frozen. Freeze it as a log and slice off coins as you need them — it cuts cleanly straight from the freezer.