How to make flavoured butter

Chili-lime butter

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp lime zest
1 tbsp lime juice
1/8 tsp chili-garlic sauce

Directions:

1. Stir butter with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl until creamy. Add zest, juice and chili-garlic sauce and stir until evenly mixed. Scrape onto a piece of waxed paper. Fold one edge of the paper over butter and smooth, shaping the mixture into a log about 5 in. long. Roll the log and seal by twisting the ends.

2. Chill log in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using. Wrap in foil and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

Makes 1/2 cup

Per tsp: 31 calories, 3 g fat, 1 mg sodium.

Butter is one of the few fats that also contain some nutrients, such as fat-soluble vitamin A. Also, 1/3 of the fat in butter is unsaturated.


Switch it up
For each of these mouth-watering variations, start with 1/2 cup roomtemperature, unsalted butter.

Blue Cheese: Combine butter with 1/2 cup crumbled stilton or roquefort cheese, 2 tbsp Dijon and 1 tbsp finely chopped chives.

Shallot: Combine butter with 3 tbsp diced shallots.

Niçoise: Combine butter with 1/4 cup finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, 1 diced anchovy, 1 minced clove garlic and 1/4 tsp dried oregano.

Garlic-Herb: Combine butter with 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley and 1 tbsp finely minced garlic.

Cinnamon-Sugar: Combine butter with 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Honey-Sesame: Combine butter with 2 tbsp honey and 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds.



Ten ways to use it

Tex-Mex Corn: Toss cooked corn with chili-lime butter.

Classic Steak: Cook steak in a grill pan and top with a thick slice of blue-cheese butter.

Pasta Niçoise: Stir niçoise butter into hot pasta and thin out with some reserved pasta cooking water.

Easy Roast: Spread shallot butter under chicken or turkey skin before cooking.

Sesame Chips: Brush melted honey-sesame butter over tortillas and bake at 350F for 10 min or until crunchy.

Breakfast Treat: Slather french toast with cinnamon-sugar butter.

French Beans: Sauté green beans with shallot butter and chopped fresh tarragon.

Tea Sandwiches: Spread shallot butter on sandwich bread and top with thinly sliced cucumber.

Simplest Side: Toss steamed veggies with any flavoured butter.

Easiest Fish: Set thin slices of niçoise or garlic-herb butter on top of hot pan-fried trout, halibut or scallops.

Tip: To make the ultimate garlic toasts, slather sliced country bread with our garlic-herb
butter. Top with mozzarella or gruyère. Broil until bubbly.