The Garlic Wars

[TATTRAT]

Originally Posted by Greg Who Cooks

#1 way to use garlic before it goes limp:

Preheat oven 350. Cut top (pointy) ends off garlic heads. Wrap several or a dozen in aluminum foil and bake for 45-60 minutes. (Do this while you're roasting something else.) Let cool then squeeze the heads and the roasted soft pulp comes out like little fat worms. (I'm sure I could have found a more appetizing/appealing way to describe that.) then mix the puree into a paste and use that later to incorporate the roasted garlic flavor into other foods. My best application of this: garlic mashed potatoes.

I love this method, BUT, this is roasted garlic. While I prefer it's mellowness, and ease of use, it's not the same as fresh chopped garlic. It lacks that bite, and initial zing that fresh chopped, toasted crispy garlic has, and yields to a dish. Like an aglio y olio wouldn't be the same with roasted garlic, imo. Also, you mentioned garlic mashed potatoes, a perfect example of the mellowness of ROASTED, v. fresh and toasted. Roasted Garlic, imo, is a FAR better alternative, as it gets the garlic in there, but the flavor is rounded out nicely, v fresh/sauteed/toasted where it's in your face garlic.

[4meandthem]

I stopped roasting garling and started taking the whole peeled cloves and putting them in a small sauce pan covered in olive oil. cook at a low heat for an hour and you will have great cloves without the paper mess and the added bonus of the oil to use in other things. They come out plumper and just as sweet. My pan only holds about 10-12 oz

[TATTRAT]

Originally Posted by 4meandthem

I stopped roasting garling and started taking the whole peeled cloves and putting them in a small sauce pan covered in olive oil. cook at a low heat for an hour and you will have great cloves without the paper mess and the added bonus of the oil to use in other things. They come out plumper and just as sweet. My pan only holds about 10-12 oz

We do that, it's basically garlic confit. Again, a GREAT thing to have on hand, and the oil gets so perfumed/infused with garlicky goodness like you said. Great for just sauteing, but AWESOME for Salad dressings, especially for home made Ceaser dressing. Also, for mayo/aioli. . . couple of egg yolks, some of the oil, add a little crushed red pepper, salt and pepper, a tiny hit of pomery mustard, a tiny hit of balsamic and a little fresh thyme=a great sandwich spread.

[4meandthem]

Originally Posted by TATTRAT

We do that, it's basically garlic confit. Again, a GREAT thing to have on hand, and the oil gets so perfumed/infused with garlicky goodness like you said. Great for just sauteing, but AWESOME for Salad dressings, especially for home made Ceaser dressing. Also, for mayo/aioli. . . couple of egg yolks, some of the oil, add a little crushed red pepper, salt and pepper, a tiny hit of pomery mustard, a tiny hit of balsamic and a little fresh thyme=a great sandwich spread.

I drooled a little! I am so doing that!

[Bolas De Fraile]

Originally Posted by Andy M.

I am frustrated by the garlic I see in the stores. It's often a small head made up of a zillion tiny little cloves. WAY too much work to get a decent amount of garlic. I am always looking for nice big heads made up of all big plump cloves.

I'm tempted to buy a press so I can just toss the cloves in without peeling and squeeze away.

Andy I grow my own, Harry planted these in the autumn of 2011 and the necks are already as thick as a cumberland sausage.
Harry tried the leaves last week...............they blew his socks off.

[Andy M.]

Bolas, precise directions to your garden, please.

[MyCrummyApartment]

Originally Posted by 4meandthem

I stopped roasting garling and started taking the whole peeled cloves and putting them in a small sauce pan covered in olive oil. cook at a low heat for an hour and you will have great cloves without the paper mess and the added bonus of the oil to use in other things. They come out plumper and just as sweet. My pan only holds about 10-12 oz

Interesting. Okay I normally do exactly this but I peel them first. How do you extract the garlic from the peel after cooking? Are you just squeezing out mush? If you leave it in the peel, how do you store the garlic?

[Greg Who Cooks]

The cloves just squish out with either method, sort of like a caterpillar crawling out of a chrysalis. The husks don't stick any more.

[4meandthem]

Originally Posted by MyCrummyApartment

Interesting. Okay I normally do exactly this but I peel them first. How do you extract the garlic from the peel after cooking? Are you just squeezing out mush? If you leave it in the peel, how do you store the garlic?

I said peeled cloves.

[Harry Cobean]

i've got one of these,works a treat:

Great garlic peeler - YouTube