Cooking With Garlic

Cooking with Garlic

garlic scapes and purple cauliflower

Garlic can be used in so many ways: raw, cooked, roasted, dried or in powder form.
When roasted it becomes mild, sweet and somewhat caramelized. When finely minced it becomes bolder and when crushed it becomes hotter yet.

Crushing or smashing raw garlic will release the sulfur compound Allicin, which is responsible for garlic’s pungent flavor and aroma as well as its therapeutic benefit.
Allicin is only created when the enzyme alliinase interacts with the sulfur compound alliin. When alliinase and alliin are brought together, the creation of allicin occurs. Alliinase and alliin are held in isolation in separate cells of the garlic clove and are only brought together when the cell walls are comprised, such as occurs with crushing, chopping, slicing and biting.

Heat destroys allicin, but garlic that has been chopped and sautéed still has significant therapeutic benefits, though not the full range of benefits of raw garlic.

Dry–Roasted Garlic
Unpeeled garlic cloves can be roasted in a dry skillet over medium heat. This produces garlic that has a toasted flavor, not sweet like oven-roasted garlic.

Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Cook the garlic cloves for 10 –15 minutes, tossing often until somewhat blackened and soft to the touch. Peel the cloves once they have cooled.

Oven-Roasted Garlic

Oven-Roasted Garlic

This is one of the easiest, but tastiest of garlic treats. Roasting garlic makes it mild, sweet and somewhat caramelized. Roasted garlic has a creamy texture and is wonderful as a spread or to use in dressings or other cooking. What you don’t use can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 10 days and be used in other cooking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Simply slice off the top portion of the heads and peel off just the outer papery layers of skin. Place the heads face up in a baking dish or one of our Garlic Bakers (see garlic accessories page) and sprinkle with olive oil and a bit of water.  Bake for 1 – 1  1/4 hours.

Peeling Garlic
This can be a tedious task, but there are a few tricks to make the process easier.
Cut off the stem end and then place the side of a large chef’s knife on the clove and press gently with the heel of your hand to release the skin.
You can also try our E-Z Roll Garlic Peeler – see our utensils page.

Dehydrating Garlic
Dehydrating garlic is a great way to preserve extra garlic. While it doesn’t have the robust flavor of fresh garlic, it’s a way to enjoy organic garlic year round.  We enjoy using one of our grinders – see our utensils page, to add a little garlic flavor when you may not want the full flavor of fresh garlic.

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can dehydrate garlic in your oven.
Preheat oven to 150 degrees.
Remove the peel from cloves and either slice the cloves in half or in 1/4 inch slices, or run them through a food processor with the slicing blade. Spread them evenly, in one layer, on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 150 degrees for 3 hours or until the garlic is crisp. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

RECIPES

These are some of our favorite garlic recipes.  Hope you enjoy, and please give us your feedback.

Garlic Scape Pesto
Garlic scapes are a delicious, mild, garlic-flavored, brilliant green shoot that grows from hardneck garlic. We clip them them off to divert that growing energy to the bulb of garlic. These are a treasured culinary treat available from late-May thru late June. They make the greenest pesto ever!  This pesto keeps very well, covered and chilled up to 6 days or frozen up to 6 months. This recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto.

• 10 garlic scapes, finely chopped
• 2 cups fresh basil
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan (to taste and texture)
• 1 cup of pine nuts,  toasted if you like ( you can substitute walnuts or slivered almonds)
• 1 cup olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Put the scapes, 1/3 cup of the cheese, nuts and half the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor.  Blend all the ingredients and then add the remainder of the oil and, if you want, more cheese.  In you want a chunky pesto, just blend briefly, if you want a smoother texture blend longer.  Season with salt.
This is great tossed up with some linguine, spread on a sandwich or for just dipping your favorite french bread.

If you’re not going to use the pesto immediately, press a piece of plastic against the surface to keep it from oxidizing. The pesto can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days or packed airtight and frozen for a couple of months.

• 2 beets, peeled and cut into  1/3 inch squares
• 1 small butternut squash ( or any winter squash) you can buy them already peeled and cut into large cubes which will same you time. cut them into 1/3 inch squares
• 1 medium onion, halved and slivered
• 1 medium red bell pepper
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• fresh rosemary and thyme
• 9 or 10 inch pie crust, pastry crust, or thin flat bread crust
• 8 ounces of mild cheese, such as goat cheese, or a mild cheddar or monteray Jack — grated or crumbled

Preheat Open to 425.
Combine veggies in a large bowl, add olive oil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and toss. Place veggies in a large baking dish, or cookie sheet. They will roast best if veggies are in one layer on the sheets, you may need more than one baking dish or cookie sheet.  Roast for 35- 45 minutes
Reduce oven temp to 375
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the unfolded pastry crust on the baking sheet and seal any cracks. Sprinkle most of the cheese over the crust, leaving a 1 inch border. Put the roasted veggies over the cheese on the crust
Fold the dough border up to partially cover the filling.
Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.
Bake for about 25 minutes

Cut into wedges and serve at room temp.
Serves 4.