Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper Balsamic Butter

Ingredients:

• 1 cup salted butter
• 2 1/2 tablespoons minced roasted red pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons roasted garlic
• 1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden® Basil Paste
• 1 tablespoon Colavita® Balsamic Vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon honey

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.


Directions:

To roast the bell pepper and garlic, place the bell pepper on its side in a metal pan.  Take a clove of garlic and peel back the outer paper until you get to the tight-fitting inner paper.  [Since roasted garlic is so very tasty, I always roast an extra bulb to have lots of leftovers.] Turn the bulb on its side and slice the tip top of it off, to have a small bit of access to the top of the cloves.  Place the bulb in the center of a square of foil.  Drizzle olive oil atop the bulb.  Salt and pepper the top.  And wrap the foil around the bulb.

Place the bell pepper and the garlic into the oven on the same rack.  Roast for 20 minutes.  Remove the bell pepper and carefully turn it over so that the bottom is now the top, leaving it on its side.  Roast for an additional 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let both cool for a bit.

The bell pepper skin should be blacked and tight.  Pull off the stem.  Peel off the skin.  Discard the seeds.  The extra roasted red pepper can be stored in the refrigerator and is excellent on salads and in sandwiches!

Carefully pluck off the cloves of garlic.  Peel back the paper and scoop (or squeeze) out the roasted garlic.  The extra roasted garlic can be stored short-term in the refrigerator or frozen.  It is excellent atop brie cheese on slices of french bread and then broiled in the oven.

Once you have your roasted bell pepper and garlic ready, turn your softened butter into a bowl and beat it to make sure there are no hard portions left.  Add honey, balsamic vinegar, basil, bell pepper, and garlic.  Fold and stir, turn the bowl, fold and stir,  and repeat again and again until the ingredients are all thoroughly mixed together.  The butter will be very wet and soft.

Place into an airtight container (or your molds) and refrigerator a minimum of two hours, but preferably overnight.   Serve on crusty bread, atop vegetables, or atop chicken or fish.


Myrtle's Note:  Compounded butter needs a few hours if not overnight in the refrigerator to blend.  However, this was so very tasty that I found myself licking the spatula after I scraped the butter into my jars and molds.  The smell of making it was enough to drive me crazy.  The one major change I did was to ditch the parsley in favor of basil.  I also slightly increased the bell pepper and change the garlic from number of cloves to a measurable amount.  I was slightly hesitant about trying this butter, but I already know it will be a hit.


Source:  http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/condiments/roasted-red-pepper-compound-butter/

Herbed Goat Cheese Butter

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• 2 large cloves of garlic and 1 small one
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Herbs de Provence
• 1 heavily rounded teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or more to taste)

Directions:

Soften butter and set aside.  Zest lemon and set aside.  Finely mince garlic and set aside.  Weigh out goat cheese and set aside.  Measure out Herbs de Provence and set aside.

Rough mix the butter and goat cheese until the mixture is looking equally blended.  Add garlic, salt,  and lemon zest and fold those into the mixture.

Taking a small amount of the herbs at a time, perhaps a half a tablespoon at a time, place into the palm of your hand and use the thumb pad of your other hand to crush the herbs by rubbing it back and forth over the herbs, keeping them in the palm of your hand.  Drop the crushed herbs into the bowl and take another amount to crush.  Continue until all the herbs are crushed.  Crushing dried herbs releases their aromatics more so than simply dropping them into the bowl.

Thoroughly fold in the herbs until you have an even mixture.  As with all compound butters, it is best to let it set in the refrigerator over night before the first serving.

Compound butter can be shaped into a log, spread into silicone molds, divided into 4 ounce mason jars, or placed into a single glass container.


Myrtle's Note:  This is from a recipe for roasted corn, as in slather the butter all over roasted or grilled corn.  However, it is BLOODY FANTASTIC on steak.  Seriously sublime!  I had to adjust the original recipe because I wanted the ease of just using a whole stick of butter.  My end result was so very tasty that I feel confident in my estimate of how to make that adjustment.


Source:  https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Grilled-Corn-with-Herbed-Goat-Cheese-Butter