Compounding Garlic & Herb Butter

 On Left: Garlic, Chili, Parsely  & Lemon Butter On Right: Rosemary & Garlic Butter

Mixing up your own rolls of homemade Garlic & herb butters is the kind of thing that your family and guests will flip over and think you've just really outdone yourself, yet only takes you a few minutes to do. With fathers day this week, what would be better on a grilled steak than real homemade garlic butter?

Wish you could see my husband and teenage son standing behind the camara drooling and telling me to hurry up and take the picture so they can dive into these steaks topped with my homemade Rosemary & Garlic Butter! The corn on the cob had the chili, lemon, parsley garlic butter!

Today I'm making two types:
1) garlic-chili-parsley-lemon zest butter
2) Garlic & Rosemary Butter
but these are just ideas, you can really compound any combination of flavors you'd like to!
Compounded Garlic Butter
Ingredients
1 whole garlic bulb  roasted (cut off top, drizzle with oil and bake 45 minutes)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter softened to room temperature
3 Tablespoons Chopped fresh herbs: examples:  Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme, etc.
Optional add-ins: 1/4 - 1 teaspoon (to taste) : Grated lemon zest, chili flakes, pepper, etc.
plastic wrap or parchment paper & bakers/kitchen twine

Directions:
On cutting board, smash 6-7 cloves of  the roasted garlic.
In small mixing bowl add softened butter, smashed garlic and all of your chosen herbs and seasonings.
Mix till well blended with spatula.
On work surface place sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper.
Put butter mixture in center of wrap/paper and shape into a 4-5 inch log.
Roll up butter in plastic wrap or parchment paper to a round log Tie off ends with twine if needed.
Refrigerate up to a week or  can store in freezer up to a month.

Jan's tip: a roll of this homemade garlic butter would make a great gift in a basket with a loaf of french bread!