Great as a gift or as a chefs pantry essential.
If you’ve never used herb butters, this season is the perfect time to make some. Also known as compound butter, Herb butters are made by simply combining butter, garlic and fresh herbs that can be formed into disks or cubes. Great on steaks, in mashed potatoes, and especially when roasting Christmas turkey.
Make them as a gift or as a chefs trick up your sleeve and any time a recipe calls for butter you can use these flavoured butters.
Why Compound butter?
Fat generally makes everything taste better and when paired with spices and herbs creates a flavour vehicle to transport flavour molecules into food.
To get you started all you need is butter, garlic and your favourite herb combo, I decided to create 3 different flavours to add to my dishes : Garlic and Herb, Sweet Chilli and Lemon and Mint.
Ingredients
Garlic and Herb
- 1/2 Cup Butter (Unsalted)
- 1 Tbsp Chives
- 2 Cloves of Garlic (Minced)
- 1 Tsp Rosemary (chopped)
- 1 Tsp Thyme
- Salt and Pepper (a pinch each)
Sweet Chilli
- 1/2 Cup Butter (Unsalted)
- 1/2 Red Chilli Chopped
- 1 Tbsp Sweet Chilli Sauce
- 1 Clove of Garlic
- Salt and Pepper (a pinch each)
Lemon and Mint
- 1/2 Cup Butter (Unsalted)
- Mint
- Coriander
- 1 Clove of Garlic
- Rind of 1 lemon
- The juice of 1 lemon
- Salt and Pepper
Method:
- Finely chop and prep the herbs then in a bowl, mix all of the ingredients with a fork. Once everything is well combined, transfer the butter to a sheet of cling film and shape it into a cylinder by twisting both ends of the cling film. Pop the cylinder in the fridge to chill/ set then use it like normal butter. Trust me you’ll be having garlic and herb bread everyday!
- Keep them refrigerated for up to 5 days or in the freezer for a month.
Tip : For the perfect cylinder, use an empty roll of cling film/ foil paper or kitchen towel to store in the fridge.
Be sure to check out my Christmas Parcels for a fun way to give these butters as a gift.
Happy holidays!
If you do give this recipe a go be sure to leave me a comment & rating to tell me what you think. Don’t forget to tag me on my socials @dinewithjemutai using the #DinewithJemutai so I can see your creations and share it with the online community. Enjoy!
Yours,
Jemutai.
