Sometimes there is nothing better than butter

Is there a butter backlash? Butter has had a battering in recent years from the health police, and it's true that it's not a good idea to use it too liberally. But while the shops are full of butter alternatives, I've never quite got the point of using something that is supposed to taste like the real thing. It's like vegetarian haggis. If you don't want to eat lungs and liver then why buy something that's pretending to be just that?

So I reckon save your butter ration for the times when it really matters (and use olive oil instead when you can). Nothing beats buttery toast, butter shortbread, shrimps potted in butter or garlic butter melting on a juicy steak. Sometimes there is no substitute.

Butter has always had a place in cooking. In Ireland they've discovered firkins of butter from the 17th century buried in bogs and flavoured heavily with garlic, presumably to disguise the taste when it turns sour. I can't believe that garlic butter was a popular pork steak topping back then. The Irish are rightly proud of their butter-making history, and when I was in Ireland last year we visited the Butter Museum in Cork. There are still many dedicated farmhouse butter makers, and we were lucky enough to visit a few, including Alan & Valerie Kingston at Glenilen Farm in Drimoleage, Co Cork. Their butter is beautifully packaged; a randomly cut slab is simply wrapped in greaseproof paper and tied with twine.

So much of our traditional baking depends on butter. The farmhouse baking tradition came about because there was always butter to hand. And there are many cakes and biscuits like the Aberdeenshire butteries I came across while fishing last year on the Dee. It was at the same time as I found the black bun, which I gave a recipe for last year. I got a bollocking from one reader who said I shouldn't have bought my black bun from a deli in Scotland, and claimed my version was too shallow. But he buys his in Harvey Nichols so is he in any position to criticise?

Butter chicken (murgh makhani)

Serves 4

Butter chicken apparently started in the Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi in the 1950s when leftover tandoori and tikka chicken was put into a rich tomato and buttery sauce. Now you find it in Indian restaurants all over the world. As it uses a tandoori oven it's not something you'll find in Indian homes, but you can do it in a red hot skillet or cast-iron pan.

12 medium chicken thighs, skinned and scored with a sharp knife
4-5tbsp vegetable oil

for the marinade

200g yoghurt
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
A piece of root ginger weighing about 30g, peeled and grated
two-thirds tsp chilli powder
half tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground cumin
half tsp garam masala
half tsp salt
half tbsp lime juice

for the makhani sauce

500g tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped, or a 400g can of tomatoes
half tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
half tsp paprika
half tsp garam masala
100g butter
40ml single cream
1tbsp chopped coriander
Salt and ground black pepper

Place the yoghurt in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients for the marinade, mix well with the chicken and leave overnight in a non-reactive covered bowl.

The following day pre-heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Put the vegetable oil to a heavy roasting tin or ovenproof dish, add the pieces of chicken and cook for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.

Meanwhile put the tomatoes in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the fenugreek and paprika, season, bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes. Add the garam masala, butter, cream and coriander and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the chicken to the sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with boiled basmati rice or and Indian bread like puri, chapatti or naan.

Cold butters to make and store

Making butters to store in the freezer is pretty simple and a great way to conveniently use up excess herbs. Cold prepared butters can be sliced and served on grilled meats and fish, or added to sauces and vegetables to finish them off and give them a magic seasoning.

These types of butters form instant sauces

Parsley butter

This really needs no recipe and all you need to do is soften some unsalted butter, mix in as much parsley as you wish and season to taste. You can then roll it into a cylinder in either greaseproof paper or clingfilm and store it in the freezer. You can then easily slice it off when required and serve on grilled meats and fish, or finish a sauce with it by just whisking it in. The flavourings are endless from a simple parsley butter to complex beurre café de Paris.

Red wine and shallot butter

This is great butter to serve on grilled steaks and it forms an instant sauce once it's melted in with the steak juices.

4 medium shallots, peeled and finely chopped
150ml red wine
150g unsalted butter, softened
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the shallots in a pan with the red wine, bring to the boil and simmer until the wine has almost evaporated to about a tablespoonful. Once cool, mix well with the butter and season. Roll up into a cylinder in greaseproof paper or clingfilm and store in the freezer.

Garlic butter

As for parsley butter, but add 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed. Alternatively blend 3 or 4 wild garlic leaves with a little water and fold into softened butter.

Anchovy butter

This goes beautifully not just with grilled fish, but with vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, and with grilled meat. It's like the gentlemen's relish of butters; anchovies are a natural seasoning in themselves and really need nothing else except perhaps for a squeeze of lemon.

8-10 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
100g butter softened

Mix the anchovies with the softened butter and roll into cylinders in clingfilm or greaseproof paper.

Pancakes with butterscotch sauce

Although it tastes deliciously buttery, butterscotch is mostly sugar. It's quite an old-fashioned thing is butterscotch, and I have fond memories of my grandfather handing out a block along with rock-hard toffee that was like molasses with a cute little toffee hammer for breaking it up. What with the toffee and the crumbly Dorset Knobs, the carpet was being permanently vacuumed by Gran. And, of course, pancakes need butter, so this is a doubly buttery indulgence for Pancake Day on Tuesday. No wonder abstinence is supposed to follow.

for the pancake batter

100g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
250ml milk
50g butter, melted, plus a bit extra for cooking the pancakes

for the butterscotch

40g butter
2tbsp golden syrup
170g soft brown sugar
4tbsp double cream

to serve

300-350g crème fraîche or fromage frais

First make the pancake batter. Put all the ingredients into a liquidiser and blend well then transfer into a jug and allow to stand for at least half an hour.

To make the butterscotch, put the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar into a pan on a low heat, stirring well until the sugar has melted. Add the double cream and bring to the boil then remove from the heat and keep warm.

Take a 15cm frying pan, melt a small amount of butter in the pan until it begins to foam. Pour in enough batter, tilting the pan as you do so, to just cover the base of the pan. The first pancake is often a bit of a mess; if so chuck it out and then start afresh. This is a good way to season the pan anyway.

Continue making the pancakes in the same way and as thin as possible, turning them over with a palette knife or spatula, then lay out on a baking sheet as each one is cooked. You should get about about 12 pancakes from the mixture.

To serve reheat the pancakes briefly for a few minutes in the oven. Place a spoonful of the crème fraîche in the middle of each pancake and fold in half and half again. Repeat with the rest of the pancakes then serve them with generous amounts of the butterscotch sauce poured over.

Anzac biscuits

Makes 25-30

These are traditionally eaten on Anzac day on the 25 April in Australia and New Zealand. They were introduced during the First World War as a tribute to the soldiers who fought in the invasion of Gallipoli in 1915. Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

These are really simple to make and have a great texture reminiscent of one of my favourite shop-bought biscuits.

170g unsalted butter
1tbsp golden syrup
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp boiling water
115g rolled oats
115g plain flour, sifted
60g desiccated coconut
115g caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3. Melt the butter and syrup in a large saucepan on a low heat. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the water then stir into the butter.

Mix the remaining ingredients together and stir into the pan of butter mixture.

Using a dessert spoon and your finger, place small, or larger spoonfuls of the mixture on to a lightly greased, or non-stick baking tray spread well apart to allow for them spreading.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a light golden brown. Cool for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.