Cooking with Garlic
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Preparation:
Normally, garlic heads are divided into separate cloves then skinned before mincing, chopping, slivering, or slicing for your recipe. However you can also roast garlic heads in their complete form. See below for how to roast garlic heads.
There are two main methods for skinning a garlic clove: Smashing the clove with the side of your knife & the heel of your hand, or by slicing the pointy tip and the root end of the clove off. The smashing method is quickest, but you tend to lose more of the healthy and yummy juice (and antioxidants). It also isn't the best if you want to have nice slices or slivers for your recipe. It's the quickest method because the clove just falls out of the skin after you thump it. The other method works well if you have hard-skinned garlic, but if you have types with paper-thin skin it can get frustrating to get all of the skin off.
Minced Garlic:
Once you've skinned the clove (and blanched, if necessary), to mince garlic you can either use a garlic press (but you lose some of the meat) or mince by hand, by slicing thin slices in every direction, then by going back over again to get the size you need for your recipe.
Chopped Garlic, Sliced Garlic & slivered garlic:
These cutting methods are all pretty self-explanatory.
Cooking Methods
Blanching Garlic
Blanching takes the bitterness, spicyness and acidity out of garlic, and makes it sweeter. It probably also sucks some of the healthy juices out of the clove, but for some recipes it's really helpful. To blanch, bring a pot of water to a boil and boil skinned cloves for about 2 minutes. Take cloves out and put them into an ice bath to stop the cooking right away. Some recipes call for a particular blanching process, like 3 repetitions of the boil-remove process, so follow whatever the recipe calls for in that case.
Sauteed Garlic
Warm vegetable oil (olive, canola, safflower, etc) in sautee pan on medium to medium-low. I use a lower heat than i would normally use for sauteeing, to keep them from getting bitter-tasting. When oil is warm, add garlic (sliced or minced or slivered) and stir continuously, until garlic is browned slightly. Use the oil along with the garlic in your recipe. You can just add spinach or other cooking greens to the pan at this point, and turn off the heat to wilt them slightly. Or you can pour the oil & garlic onto green beans, or other vegetables that are good raw or barely cooked.
You can make anything taste good with sauteed garlic on it. :) Even escargot!
Roasted Garlic
For roasting a full head of garlic, brush off loose outer skin and dirt from the head; slice off the top of the head, cutting through most of the clove tips. Set the head in a piece of foil or a garlic roasting dish. Drizzle olive oil over the open cloves, then add a pinch of salt. Snug up the foil, or put the lid on the roaster, and put in oven (or grill). I'm usually roasting this along with the main meal, so I put it in at whatever temperature i'm cooking with, but 350 degrees should be enough. It takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on the heat and size of the garlic head. Just keep squishing it to see how soft it is. When done, it will be really squishy and browned slightly. To use, let the head cool slightly, then you can either use a butter knife to pluck out the individual cloves, or squeeze individual cloves with your fingers. The clove will spread nicely on bread or toast...or anything, really.
To roast individual cloves, place them in an oven-safe pan and drizzle with olive oil & sprinkle with salt. cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 mins at 400 degrees. It can also be done in a pan on the stove, but keep the heat from getting too hot.
Recipes
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