In Trinidad and Tobago, lemongrass (cymbopogon citratus), or fever grass as we call it, is only used for its medicinal properties. And so I thought that was all this plant would have been good for. That is until I started expanding my cooking horizons and was introduced to Thai and Vietnamese cooking where this wonderful fragrant grass is used extensively in many dishes.
At first my Trini tongue and taste buds had to get accustomed to tasting lemongrass (fevergrass) outside of just medicine for fever but as soon as I got over that it was easy cooking. However I had to understand how to prepare the grass for cooking. Usually when using it for a fever we just use the leaves, but when cooking, the young white stalks are used in which the outer leaves and roots are cleaned and removed. It makes sense to prepare it in this way since the leaves has tiny hairs on it and we don’t want that in our food at all.
As you would see or rather taste, this butter is really smooth with a mild lemongrass fragrance. But the only way you can really enjoy this butter is through cooking where the lemongrass flavour will get to infuse into the butter. So are you thinking of applications or ways in which you can use this exotic tasting butter? I sure can. But what about the chive? Well let’s say that you just can’t escape the Trini twist in everything we do here on the site. I was more veering towards adding chadon beni but it would have overpowered the “pastel” flavour of the lemongrass. Let’s make some chive and lemongrass butter.
Chive and Lemongrass Butter Recipe
4 oz (1/2 c) unsalted butter
2 tbs melted butter
2 tsp. minced lemon grass
1/4 tsp grated lime rind
3 tbs finely chopped chives
1 tbs lime juice
salt to taste
Here I’m showing you all how to prepare the lemongrass. Elementary really.
Mix butter, add other ingredients add salt to taste mix thoroughly and then chill until firm.
Use with chicken, fish or vegetable dishes.
Chive and Lemongrass Butter
Ingredients
- 4 oz 1/2 c unsalted butter
- 2 tbs melted butter
- 2 tsp. minced lemon grass
- 1/4 tsp grated lime rind
- 3 tbs finely chopped chives
- 1 tbs lime juice
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Mix butter, add other ingredients add salt to taste mix thoroughly and then chill until firm. Use with chicken, fish or vegetable dishes.
Well that was a simple recipe but it has to be used now in a dish to really see it shine. So in the next post I’ll show you what I did with it. Really delicious experiment I might add.
Ah gone 🙂