Good Garlic
Garlic can be kind of scary. It adds so much to the flavor of foods, but with the threat of bad breath looming, nobody wants to over do it.
Here are some helpful tips for using garlic wisely:
- The smaller the pieces, the stronger the flavor. The more it's cut, the more garlic releases flavor. So…whole garlic is much milder than minced.
- Raw garlic is stronger than cooked garlic. Roasted garlic (which is baked for a much longer time) is extremely mellow and mild.
- Elephant garlic is available from time to time in the produce section and it's huge. But the flavor is very gentle.
- When buying prepared garlic (in jars), 1 teaspoon garlic is approximately equal to 1 clove.
- If you have a hard time getting the scent of garlic off of your hands, rub lemon or vinegar on them. Or rinse your hands and rub your hands on something made of stainless steel (such as a knife or the faucet handle). The metal acts like a garlic magnet to take the oils off your skin!
So how do you roast garlic? It's easy. Take a full head of garlic (which is made up of about a dozen individual cloves). Don't peel it—just cut off the tops so that you can see each clove from the top. Place the whole head of garlic on a sheet of foil, drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil, and wrap the foil to close. Bake at 350°F for 30 to 45 minutes (or add it to the oven while you're cooking something else).
When it's done, remove from the foil pouch and squeeze the roasted garlic paste from each clove. Spread on veggies, add to bread, stir into a sauce….your imagination is the limit!
Published 04/18/08
