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Rockpool’s Cafe de Paris Butter for Steaks

The secret to a good Cafe De Paris Butter, lies in quality butter and a perfect balance of fragrant herbs and curry powder. The following recipe is not just any loose interpretation of the sauce, it is inspired by one of Australia’s best, Neil Perry of Rockpool Bar and Grill. For homemade cultured butter see this post.

Homemade Cafe de Paris Butter

I would be kidding myself, and you, if I told you that this post was about beef steaks. It’s all about the butter!

What is Cafe de Paris Butter?

Cafe de Paris Butter is a mixture of butter, herbs, spices, other condiments such as mustard, capers and Worcestershire sauce to name a few. Freeze the butter in a log and cut it off as you need it which is always a bonus!

Having tried Neil Perry’s Cafe de Paris Butter recently I couldn’t think about anything else for about a week. This should give you an indication of how good this butter was. I was going to reverse engineer the recipe, because I like to do that when I’ve tasted something magnificent. A quick search brought me to Neil’s recipe. It has a lovely hint of curry. I’m just spreading the love.

What to serve it with?

Recipes for the butter vary slightly. But, it’s always served as a little coin-sized round on top of hot beef steak. You could also try it with lamb steaks or game meats.

While this time we opted for premium Rangers Valley 300 day rumps (at $69 a kilo), a similar memorable-for-weeks-type effect could easily be achieved with your regular supermarket beef fillet. It’s all in the butter…

Homemade Cafe de Paris Butter

If you’d gasped at the price of the beef, I assure you that one $22 steak, was more than enough to satisfy 3 people. We simply asked the butchers at Victor Churchill to split the 300g steak into three.

The 100g serving can be easily padded out with cheap peasant vegetables. Humble potato mash, roasted beets, onion and parsnip, as well steamed green veg.

Homemade Cafe de Paris Butter

In the end, the meal ends up being relatively easy to prepare at home. And tastes incredibly good!

Homemade Cafe de Paris Butter
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3.58 from 21 votes

Rockpool's Cafe de Paris Butter Sauce Recipe for Steaks

It's one of those recipes that looks scary because of the long ingredient list, but it's not only quick and simple to prepare, the butter can be frozen and tastes absolutely sensational! You could use it with beef roasts, grilled salmon or even chicken. Prepare in advance. Also, I like to melt my butter portions in the microwave just before serving, for say about 15 seconds, as it helps the flavours 'melt' into the steaks. Adapted slightly from Neil Perry's recipe.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time5 minutes
Total Time15 minutes
Servings: 8 -10

Ingredients

  • 3 tsp light tasting olive oil
  • 1/4 small brown onion finely diced
  • 10 g Indian style curry powder
  • 125 g unsalted butter softened
  • 1 small handful parsley leaves
  • 1 clove garlic crushed
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 anchovy fillets
  • 1/2 tsp baby capers rinsed
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp ground pepper
  • 1 small handful basil leaves
  • 1 leaves small handful thyme sprigs only
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 egg yolk

Instructions

  • Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and curry powder over low heat until soft and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
  • Place cooled cooked onion and all remaining ingredients in a food processor or a chopping attachment of your sick blender and process until well combined and majority of the herbs have been blended into the butter. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
  • Roll Cafe de Paris Butter into a 2 inch diameter log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Any unused butter can be frozen if it is not going to be used within a week or so.
  • To serve, slice Cafe de Paris Butter into rounds (and bring to room temperature) before serving on top of hot steaks. Allow the butter to melt into a sauce.
Tried this recipe?Mention @wholesomecook or tag #wholesomecook

 

22 comments

Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide August 20, 2011 at 11:36 pm

That butter is so incredibly flavorful. That plate is pretty much my birthday meal every year. Katherine always puts a slight twist on it, but it always comes back to a nice steak and potatoes.

Reply
muppy August 21, 2011 at 11:02 am

i loooooove good steak, it is so worth it, and that butter looks amazing :)

Reply
Wholesome Cook August 21, 2011 at 9:50 pm

Thanks!

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Sara (Belly Rumbles) August 21, 2011 at 2:53 pm

I believe in the philosophy of quality not quantity when it comes to meat. Paris butter teamed with VC beef, oh yes please! Love Paris butter, what is great about it is that it freezes well too. Always nice to have it in the freeze in portions just to whip out to make dinner a bit more exciting. Love the look of your butter.

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Wholesome Cook August 21, 2011 at 9:50 pm

Thanks Sara! Agree on all points! :-)

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lateraleating August 21, 2011 at 9:32 pm

Thanks for that photo of the butter, I’ll have sweet dreams tonight :)

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Wholesome Cook August 21, 2011 at 9:49 pm

You’re welcome, whenever I think steak this butter pops to mind!

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Bizzy Lizzy August 21, 2011 at 9:56 pm

This sounds divine… perhaps I’ll be fantasising about it too! Thanks for sharing.

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Ashley@bakerbynature August 23, 2011 at 3:13 am

That butter looks like it’s exploding with flavor; I need to make this very very soon!

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The Best Creamy Peppercorn Sauce for Steak | Wholesome Cook February 17, 2014 at 10:45 am

[…] peppercorn or mushroom sauces. Both are our equal favourites, second only to our interpretation of Neil Perry’s Cafe de Paris butter.  So, rather than choosing we quite often just have both. Indulgent, I […]

Reply
The Best Creamy Mushroom Sauce for Steaks | Wholesome Cook February 17, 2014 at 2:44 pm

[…] you are interested in other simple and delicious sauces for steak, try the Creamy Peppercorn Sauce, Cafe de Paris Butter sauce, Vanilla Bean Hollandaise or my Asian-inspired […]

Reply
Mirjam March 24, 2014 at 2:33 am

I would love to make this-is there a good substitute for the anchovies and Worcestershire sauce? Severe allergy to anchovies!

Reply
Martyna @ Wholesome Cook March 24, 2014 at 7:21 am

Hi Mirjam, I’d say you could omit them altogether perhaps adding extra salt, a touch of tamarind paste, pinch of chilli and a little lemon zest. Hope that works for you! :-)

Reply
Cultured Butter in 3 Fabulous Flavours | Wholesome Cook April 8, 2014 at 9:56 am

[…] love with the salty, curried concoction of flavours that goes fantastically well with beef. You can find the full recipe here. Although I think Vanilla Bean Butter might seem a little ususual, it is perfect, however, for […]

Reply
Eat Healthy  | Jen's Little Kitchen April 29, 2015 at 6:10 pm

[…] Grilled cheese is my ultimate favorite!! I revamped it by adding Cafe de Paris butter and it sure made a whole lotta difference!!  Throw in some sweet strawberries and a banana or your favorite fruit for an even more delightful breakfast experience!  Link to Cafe De Paris recipe here.  […]

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bell July 5, 2015 at 7:08 am

SO GOODDDDDD!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 #turnup

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Dawit July 29, 2016 at 12:09 am

I think wow

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Lynn June 6, 2019 at 11:08 am

I can’t be satisfied with 100g of steak.

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Odette Tin-Aung April 23, 2020 at 7:56 am

I have not tried to make the sauce yet, sorry.

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Nicolas July 14, 2021 at 10:21 am

Well that’s the Cheapie version if your restaurant wants to turn a profit however the ‘traditional’ (it’s a closely guarded secret) has a ridiculously long list of ingredients that perhaps some of your readers would like to try…

Ingredients:
1 kg butter
60g tomato ketchup
25g Dijon mustard
25g capers (in brine)
125g brown eschalots
50g fresh curly parsley
50g fresh chives
5g dried marjoram
5g dried dill
5g fresh thyme, leaves only
10 leaves fresh French tarragon
Pinch ground rosemary
1 garlic clove, squashed then chopped very finely
8 anchovy fillets (rinsed)
1 tbs good brandy
1 tbs Madeira
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp curry powder (Keens)
Pinch cayenne
8 white peppercorns
juice 1 lemon
zest of ½ lemon
zest ¼ orange
12gm salt

….Good luck with that!
(SERIOUSLY – Someone should just make it and sell it frozen in Supermarkets)

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Gaew December 1, 2021 at 5:36 pm

So far this is my most favorite cafe de Paris butter/sauce!! Even better than Ottolenghi’s!! Thanks so much for the recipe 🙏🏼

Reply
Martyna @ Wholesome Cook January 18, 2022 at 11:20 am

Oh wow! That’s super lovely to hear you liked it. Hats off to Neil Perry then!

Reply

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