Wild Garlic Butter

Sometimes it’s the simplest of things in life that bring the most joy & the same can be said of everything that comes out the kitchen. Good food doesn’t have to be complicated, take hours to make or even look particularly appealing, so long as it tastes good. One such simple treat that comes out of my kitchen at around this time each year is wild garlic butter.

With the first basked full of foraged leaves, half gets whizzed up into pesto & the other gets whipped up into wild garlic butter. It’s effortless to make but I always make a big batch of it just so that I can freeze some to be used well beyond the short season, meaning that I get to enjoy the flavours of spring in my cooking & baking for the rest of the year.

Wild garlic butter is so versatile, use it alone, in cooking or in baking, generally I find that most things can be improved with a little spread of butter. But it does go particularly well with a good quality steak, tossed through spring potatoes or vegetables &, perhaps my favourite way, quite simply spread on a corner of some warm, crusty bread. However you use it, my recipe makes for two logs of butter as it’s definitely worth making more than one of these… the first will soon disappear, trust me!

WILD GARLIC BUTTER
(makes two 250g logs of butter)

Ingredients:

• 500g salted butter
• 125g wild garlic
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 8-10 wild garlic leaves to wrap the butter in

Method:

• Wash the wild garlic leaves thoroughly before use & leave to dry
• Begin by placing the butter into a large bowl & beating to soften
• Next, using a sharp knife, finely chop the wild garlic & add to the bowl along with the salt
• Beat everything together until smooth & well blended
• Divide the butter in half & place each half into the middle of a beeswax wrap or piece of cling film
• Use the back of a spoon or your hands to spread the butter out into a length (approximately 5 inches long)
• Now roll the butter up inside the wrap or film & roll the wrapped butter along a work surface to create a smooth log shape
• Chill the butter for 1-2 hours before using, alternatively you can also freeze the butter for later use