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Herb Butters
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Herb butters are very easy to make and add a special gourmet touch to any culinary occasion. Get creative and use your favorite herbs and spices or get dramatic and experiment with a few new ones.
If you have never made (or even tasted) herb butters before, you might want to start with parsley and chives. They are mild but add interesting flavor to vegetables like corn-on-the-cob. Burnet is another mild herb. It has a cucumber-like flavor, and is delicious on sandwiches. Pineapple mint butter is also delicious. Another good combination is sweet Italian basil and purple basil. French tarragon butter is wonderful for sautéing chicken. If you mix up a batch of Simon and Garfunkel butter (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) go easy on the sage, rosemary and thyme, for their flavors are quite intense.
To every ½ cup of softened butter, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of freshly cut herbs, easy on the garlic. If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, you may use dried. Just remember to use only 1/3 the quantity of fresh. Blend herbs with butter thoroughly and refrigerate at least overnight so the flavors have a chance to blend.
Herb butters are great on sandwiches, crackers, and melted on veggies, especially corn-on-the-cob. They are also great to sauté meat, poultry and seafood.
These guidelines can also be followed to make delicious cheese spreads. Just change the amount of butter to softened cream cheese. Great on crackers and celery sticks!