Black Garlic Butter with Lemon
With the deep umami and liquorice notes of Black Garlic against the lemony tang from the grated zest, this Black Garlic Butter with Lemon really shines. Add to that Dill, complementing the anise flavours and parsley, to add some fresh minerality, you have the perfect accompaniment for any meat.
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Why You Will Love This
Black Garlic
The basic idea came of course from the large jar of Black Garlic I made and had to play with. And play with I did. I also made an incredible Sourdough Chocolate Black Garlic Bread, with notes of fresh coffee. I’m officially in love.
Black garlic is garlic that has been very slowly caramelised, using the maillard reaction to draw out all its sweetness. It has only a tiny hint of garlic flavour left, while the dominant notes are those of umami, caramel, aged balsamic and fruit. It also has a few benefits you can find here.
You can find a super easy way to make it in your rice or pressure cooker in this post.
Everyone Needs an Extra Special Compound Butter
I don’t know about you, but I’m hooked on compound butter since my mom made her very first garlic bread for parties. It was a novelty back then (Yes, I’m that old!) or maybe it was just very new to me, but god was that stuff good!
I still love it (and occasionally much a whole baguette filled with it for dinner…sorry, not sorry!), but have since found so many more uses for garlic and herb butter. The most famous one being my Garlic Herb Lemon Roast chicken, which you can find in its Black Garlic incarnation here.
This Black Garlic compound butter doesn’t make just roast chicken better, but is also amazing on steak or these life changing Burger with Black Garlic Aioli. Or simply spread on some fresh sourdough bread. Can I suggest Sourdough Brioche Pretzel Buns?
Takes 5 Minutes To Make
You literally just throw all the ingredients in your food processor*, whizz them until smooth and that’s it. There aren’t many flavor boosts that are this efficient!
The Ingredients
- My goal was, beside the integration of Black garlic, to have herbs that support it best.
- Which would be either tarragon or dill, for their anise notes, that go well with the black garlic’s liquorice flavours, after you had it caramelise for weeks. No fresh tarragon was anywhere to be found, so dill it was.
- And parsley, to add fresh herbiness and minerality to it and because it is always fantastic in any compound butter.
- The lemon zest lifts up all the flavours and adds zing to it.
- Butter – Use good quality unsalted butter here and add salt manually to it. I used Irish butter, considering I live in Ireland.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. I use kosher salt in most of my recipes, unless otherwise specified.
The Process
In the Food Processor
It’s incredibly easy to make. A few seconds if you have a food processor*. Just throw everything in and pulse, until you have creamy herb and garlic speckled butter.
By Hand
Or a few minutes by hand. Just let the butter soften a bit, then mash the Black Garlic with a fork, chop the herbs, season with salt and pepper and mix everything together until you have a homogenous mass.
Shape and Store
Scrape every last bit out of the bowl * onto a bit of clingfilm, roll and twirl both ends, to make a tight sausage form and leave to firm up in the fridge.
What to Use It For
Now from the very obvious use of melting it on freshly grilled steak, you can put this on top of fresh Bread. Try it with my Wholewheat Sourdough Pretzel Buns or the Wholewheat Sourdough Sandwich bread. It’s delicious. My targeted use was a stunning Black Garlic Roast Chicken, which I first brined (the brine also included Black Garlic) and then topped my Summer Salad with. With all those incredible flavours, it barely needed any dressing.
Meal Prep
I actually prepared this butter 2 weeks ago and stored it in my freezer, as I was already planning the chicken. You can do the same, so you always have a super quick seasoning for an ad-hoc roast on hand. It will also keep for two weeks or so in the fridge. Or you can freeze it in slices for up to 6 months, so you always have some at hand when you feel like having steak or chicken or just some warm fresh bread spread with it.
FAQ
Sure, but once you’ve tried Black Garlic, you won’t go back to it alone. Apparently there was a huge rise in the use of Black Garlic throughout the restaurant scene, one of them, which a friend of mine worked in, employing multiple rice cookers just to keep up with their demand. It’s just so good!
More Amazing Black Garlic Recipes:
How to make Black Garlic (Takes 5 minutes active work)
The probably best burger I have ever eaten: Burger with Black Garlic Aioli
Make your next roast dinner with Black Garlic Brine for Chicken
Or use it for this incredible Black Garlic Roast Chicken Summer Salad
The ultimate comfort food: Mushroom Spinach Pasta Bake with Black Garlic
Surprise yourself and loved ones with an unusual Black Garlic Sourdough Bread with Chocolate
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.
Black Garlic Butter with Lemon
Equipment
- 1 Food Processor optional
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter
- 4 cloves black garlic mashed
- 1 clove fresh garlic minced
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp chopped dill
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to the small bowl * of your food processor * and mix until you have a smooth mass.
- Alternatively, if making by hand: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, let the unsalted butter soften at room temperature. Add all remaining ingredients to the softened butter and mix thoroughly with a fork until well combined.
- Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning if desired.
- Once the black garlic lemon butter is well mixed, transfer it to a serving dish or roll it into a log shape using plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to firm up the butter.
- Serve the black garlic lemon butter chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Just loved this flavored butter. My family devoured it with toast for snack.
This was SO good! I used it for some salmon and we couldn’t get enough of it. And easy, too! Thanks.
Just made your Black Garlic Butter with Lemon and it’s a game-changer! It’s going straight into my recipe rotation. Thanks for sharing this dish!
This black garlic butter is amazing on grilled steaks. Now I want to try your black garlic chicken recipe!
This is a delicious recipe and has the perfect balance of flavours. We served the black garlic butter over some grilled fish and it really enhanced the dish. Thank you for the recipe!