As winter wears on, I tire of the root cellar vegetables like potatoes and squash and yearn for sprouts of green in the soil. The seeds are purchased, the garden sketched. Plans are in place to have a prolific summer.
Alas, it will be a few months before I can reap the goodness of my humble potager. Yet buried under all that snow, a few plants have made it through the winter. If I dig around my white-covered kitchen garden, I can find my rosemary plant, weathering the cold in style. It is here that the first fresh herbs will appear this spring.
A blue cheese and rosemary compound butter is easy to execute with a large flavor payoff in the end. It turns an everyday steak into something grand and dresses up even the root vegetables of winter, turning them into a feast. A bit of butter to top off the last spaghetti squash, to grace a pile of roasted baby reds or even the first spring asparagus will have you looking towards spring's sunshine in no time.
Blue Cheese and Rosemary Butter
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup blue cheese crumbles
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
Mix together butter, blue cheese and rosemary until incorporated. Pack into a small, airtight container and store covered in the refrigerator until ready to use. Serve on vegetables, grilled meat and fish or over cooked grains for an added boost of flavor.
Makes ¾ cup compound butter.
Photo by Shaina Olmanson
