HONEY HERB BUTTER
A few summers ago my sister and I went to a weekend of cooking classes at Laurel Run Cooking School on Lake Erie. Friday night class was the proper way to cut up and grill a whole chicken. (Who knew how easy that is to do with a handy pair of kitchen scissors!) We sampled so many grilled chicken dishes and sides to pair it with. It was a great night.
Saturday was all about grilling burgers and experimenting with different seasonings, cheeses and fillings to make them incredible. One of the most important things I left that class with was how to bring hamburger to room temperature without letting it “BREAK”. When beef “BREAKS” that refers to letting the meat get too warm and the fat starts to liquify making it hard to form into a patty and the loss of fat can make the burgers very dry. It you have ever tried to form patties and got an excessive amount of grease all over your hands – your meat is too warm for best grilling. The burgers we ate were incredible and I will share some of the recipes with you in another post.
Sunday was all about HERBS! We learned how to choose a healthy seedling, how to re-pot, grow, harvest and preserve fresh herbs to be enjoyed all year long. After an afternoon of cutting, chopping, blending and mixing we were all able to take our own handmade roll of honey herb butter home with us.
To make honey herb butter I use fresh parsley, chives and basil. I chop each into fine pieces and stir them into I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. I caution you about using real butter because when frozen, it tends to separate and becomes watery. You will not have that with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. It will keep it’s shape and texture and even after several months in the freezer it will still taste as fresh as the day you put it in there. The last thing I add is honey. I use a good quality of honey and I love to use “INFUSED” honey just to experiment with different flavors.
Lavender honey is my absolute favorite. Dustin sent me a jar from a lavender farm in Hawaii and well, it had me at hello. It was made of certified organic Kiawe honey with dried crushed lavender blossoms. It is made by Rare Organic Honey and can be purchased online. They have several flavors to choose from and they are all wonderful but like I said, the lavender is my favorite.
To one pound of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, I add about three tablespoons of each, basil, parsley and chives and about two tablespoons of honey. I stir it very well to mix and then sample it to see if it is sweet enough. Each type of honey has a different level of sweetness so the only way to really get it right it to mix it and taste it.
Once I am satisfied with the taste I spoon the butter into a freezer safe quart baggie. I use the flat side of a butter knife and squeeze all the butter to the bottom of the baggie, then remove as much air as possible and seal the bag. I roll the extra bag around it and tape into place. Now it is ready for the freezer.
To use, I remove from the freezer, while still frozen, I cut off a slice of the roll, put the remainder in a new baggie and stick it back in the freezer.
I use Honey Herb Butter in so many dishes I make. I love it on cooked carrots. It is awesome to melt on low heat, cook asparagus until almost tender, then toss a handful of pine nuts on top and some freshly grated guryere cheese, turn the heat off, cover and let it steam until the asparagus is soft and the cheese is melted. It is a family favorite dish at our house. I also LOVE to slice cristini bread or crusty french loaf into thin pieces, cover the top with honey herb butter and pop in the oven until the bread is crunchy. It is so easy and so good and so popular ever time I make it.
While harvesting my herbs, I also chop some to freeze and use in soups, stews, pastas and vegetable dishes throughout the year. See the pictures below to see how I seal them in baggies to freeze. To use, just cut off a hunk of the frozen herb and put the rest back in the freezer…it is that easy and they taste as fresh as the day they were frozen.
I hope this gives you a few ideas you will try at home with your own herb garden bounty.
Happy Harvest!
Dianna
