CSA cooking: savory butters

basket inventory: baby carrots, red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, cantaloupe, yellow chard, yellow pear tomatoes, green beans, oranges, dill, cilantro, parsley, basil

big fan of ReadyMade Mag (i think that is pretty obvious), and i of course get their email newsletter.  in this week's newsletter, there was a little ditty on compound butters aka flavoring butters with a number of seasonings/herbs/fruits/etc... to get rich, complex, fatty goodness slivers that will gourmet-up just about anything you put it on.

this weeks CSA basket was a perfect challenge to make butters with all of the herbs we had!
Each recipe follows the same procedure: 1 stick of butter softened, dice the crap out of your ingredients and mix very well into the butter (you can also use a food processor for everything), either keep in a glass jar, or for longer storage, roll into logs  in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer.  cut slices as you need them-the possibilities are endless.

VALENCIA ORANGE, SHALLOT AND PERUVIAN SALT

• 2T orange zest
• 2T minced shallot
• 1t salt

CILANTRO, THAI CHILI WITH LIME

• 2T minced cilantro
• 1-2 small chilies 
• 1t lime zest

BLUE CHEESE WITH GARLIC AND PARSLEY

• 1T blue cheese
• 2 cloves garlic minced (or more)
• 2T minced parsley

SIMPLE SWEET BUTTER

• 1-2T honey (like Backyard Bees local honey)
• 2 T orange zest OR raspberries OR smashed macadamia nuts (we are not getting them for a few more months i think, but a girl can think ahead)