Recipes From the Root Cellar_ 270 Fresh Ways to Enjoy Winter Vegetables - Andrea Chesman [10]
Garlic grows as a bulb underground, with each bulb composed of some 10 to 20 cloves. It adds tremendous flavor to a dish, with the pungency of its flavor directly related to how you prepare it. In general, the finer the chop, the stronger the flavor; however, the longer it is cooked, the mellower the flavor. Garlic added at the end of cooking will result in a stronger flavor than garlic prepared the same way but added earlier. Raw garlic is much stronger in flavor than garlic that is sautéed in oil or roasted.
Availability
Garlic is available year-round because it stores well.
Storage
How well garlic keeps depends on how well it is handled from harvest on. The bulbs should be harvested when the tops begin to die back, before the individual cloves burst through their papery sheaths. Remove all loose dirt and let the garlic cure for a week or two in a sheltered, well-ventilated spot. Then snip off the roots close to the bulb and either braid the tops or snip them off. Store in a cool dry place, such as an unheated closet. When you bring garlic into the kitchen, store in a basket or open container out of direct light.
How to Buy
Look for large, firm heads with plenty of dry, papery covering and no soft spots or signs of shriveling. Heads showing signs of sprouting are past their prime and were probably not dried properly. Garlic that is too old will crumble under gentle pressure from the fingers. Avoid little boxes of supermarket garlic; these are sure to be improperly stored and old.
Preparation
Strip off some of the papery covering from the bulb, then break off as many cloves as required. Garlic cloves come in a wide variety of sizes, so the numbers given in a recipe should be treated as a rough guide. Feel free to increase or decrease the number of cloves according to your preference.
The easiest way to peel garlic is to smash the whole unpeeled clove with the side of a cleaver or wide chef’s knife, causing the skin to separate from the clove. And then the clove is well on its way to being minced. You can peel them one by one with a paring knife, but it is quite a tedious process. You can also cover the cloves with boiling water for 1 minute, which separates the skins from the cloves and makes it easier to peel.
Toward spring, a greenish sprout may emerge from the cloves, signaling a break in dormancy. The sprouts are somewhat bitter, but not so much that you will notice it in most dishes. It can be removed or left, as you prefer.
Garlic cloves are usually minced or crushed. Some people prefer mincing with a chef’s knife (which has already been dirtied when you smashed the clove to peel it). Others prefer using a garlic press, which crushes the cloves and forces out a tiny purée of garlic.
Cooking Ideas
To roast garlic, cut off the top of the bulb so that some of the cloves are exposed. Drizzle with olive oil and cover (or wrap the bulb in aluminum foil) and roast for about 20 minutes at 350°F. You should be able to squeeze the roasted cloves from their papery linings. Roasted garlic makes a tasty addition to many dishes, from soups to sauces to salad dressings.
Dishes that taste just of garlic are rare but wonderful to the garlic lover. Aioli, homemade mayonnaise flavored with garlic, is the ultimate expression of raw garlic flavor. Find a lemony version on page 181 and use it to top everything from roasted vegetable salads to roasted fish. The cream of garlic soup on page 106 is an expression of how slow cooking can coax a gentler, kinder garlic to full expression. And in between, just about every dish from stir-fries to panfries starts with sautéing garlic in olive oil. Just don’t let the garlic scorch or turn black; this will impart