Title: Garlic 3
Categories: Info
Yield: 1 Text

1

Text

GARLIC HINTS:

Don't forget that the old way of using garlic as a pungent seasoning is still wonderful. Some hints follow to help you season splendidly.

In its raw form, garlic is powerful. Those misguided souls who persist in thinking of garlic as vulgar, and even inedible, are usually thinking about it in its raw state. Pungency can be tempered by marinating raw garlic in an acid solution, using citrus juice, vinegar, or wine. But remember raw garlic has an excitement all its own. It may not do as an everyday food, but it provides an occasional exhilarating jolt to jaded taste buds.

Avoid garlic presses. They will reduce garlic to an evil-smelling mush. Instead mince the cloves with a sharp knife or ~- for maximum garlickly flavor -- crush they by whacking them with a rubber mallet (available in all hardware stores). Crushing raw garlic releases its oils and the flavor will be at it strongest. The mallet method has the added advantage of facilitating the peeling. Hit the unpeeled clove lightly with the mallet to loosen the skin, remove the skin, and then hit the clove several times to crush it. No mallet? Until you get one, use the flat side of a chef's knife or cleaver to press down on the clove. The remove the loosened skin and proceed.

Raw garlic, if allowed to saute until brown, becomes bitter, unpleasant, and inedigestible. Instead, saute it very gently and at the very most, allow it to turn a very pale golden color. DO NOT let it brown, or the dish will be spoiled. However, whole garlic cloves that have been gentled by simmering or boiling can be browned and even carmelized with delicious results.

Garlic powder, garlic salt, and granulated garlic impart an acrid, rancid flavor to foods. Avoid these products by using fresh cloves instead.

A salad without garlic is like a hug without a kiss, a day without sunshine; in fact, it's a damn shame. One of the best ways to permeate a salad with the flavor of garlic is to split a clove, then rub the salad bowl thoroughly with the split clove. Let the bowl dry for a few moments, then add the salad ingredients, the dressing, and toss. Add an additional scent of garlic by rubbing the heel of a stale loaf of French bread thoroughly with a split clove. Toss this CHAPON with the salad. Whoever gets to eat the crunchy, flavorful morsel is very lucky indeed.

iIf you want to add garlic flavor to a sauce or saute, but want no actual garlic pieces in the finished dish, put some cloves of garlic on toothpicks. Saute them, simmer them, and then--before the dish is served--pluck them out by their toothpicks. They make perfectly delicious little treats for the cook.

If you want to add zest to your favorite fried chicken recipe, try Andrea Smith's method. Andrea, an Atlanta cooking teacher and food consultant, recalls her mother's secret of delicious fried chicken: "the use of garlic and onions to flavor the frying oil." Heat oil, add sliced onion and chopped garlic and cook until golden. Discard solids and proceed with your recipe. This works well for frying fish and shellfish as well.

previous

next