Garlic has many uses. Tips, techniques, and equipment for choosing, storing, preparing, and cooking with garlic.
Whether you're a garlic lover or you're just learning to identify the tantalizing seasoning, these tips will help you get the most out of the stinking rose.
**Choosing garlic
A bulb of garlic is called a head. Each of the wedges is called a clove.
Choose heads that are firm, with no wrinkled outer cloves. Definitely bypass any heads that show any black or gray. When the papery skins are removed, you'll find more than a little discoloration on such cloves.
Choose heads that don't show any signs of sprouting or green stalk. If you do end up with a bulb that's starting a stalk, use it as soon as possible.
**Storing garlic
Store garlic at room temperature, in a place free from humidity. If you'd like to place it a bag, use something breathable, such as mesh or paper.
Garlic stored in oil poses a danger of botulism. If you'd like garlic infused oil, heat the oil with some roughly chopped garlic, discard the garlic and use the oil immediately. Alternatively, you can store garlic and oil in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. Extended storage or storage of garlic in oil at room temperature is extremely risky.
**Peeling garlic
There are three methods of peeling garlic. The first is simply to use your fingers to work the skin off the clove. This is effective, but highly likely to result in garlic-scented fingers.
Another method is to place a clove on a cutting board and then whack it with the back or side of a knife to loosen the skin.
Finally, you can purchase a garlic peeler. Really this is a piece of texture rubber in which you roll the clove. It's surprisingly effective, and has the advantage of keeping your hands free from the oil.
Some cuisines have you not peel the clove at all, claiming this imparts a different flavor. You can also forgo peeling the cloves if you plan on roasting the whole head (more on this later).
You only need to break off and peel cloves you need. Leave the rest intact; nature provided a good wrapper for them.
**Chopping, preparing, and pressing garlic
Contrary to many people's expectations, when you chop garlic, the larger pieces impart milder flavor. There's less surface area of the garlic exposed with larger pieces. Smaller pieces are more potent, and crushed or pressed garlic are the most potent. Pressed garlic especially, since it's easiest to press it directly into the dish you're preparing. Not only to you have garlic in the dish, but also you have more of the oil from pressing it.
Chopping and slicing garlic requires a confident hand and practice.
To crush it, place the flat of a chef's knife over the garlic, press on the flat, chop the crushed garlic, and repeat these steps until it's the consistency you desire.
Garlic and heat
If you've tried eating raw garlic--whether on a dare or because you love it that much--you know that it imparts a strong, almost hot flavor.
What a lot of people don't realize is that heat not just changes its flavor, but how you heat it can affect the type of flavor.
Roasting garlic imparts a sweet, rich garlic flavor, with a very buttery feel. To roast garlic, chop off just the tip of the pointy end of an entire head. Drizzle a little olive oil over the ends of the exposed cloves. Wrap in foil, and bake at 350 degrees F for an hour to an hour and a half. Use by chopping more off the end and squeezing out the entire mixture, or by picking off individual cloves and squeezing them one by one.
Roughly chopped garlic cooked in oil at a very high heat will not only resemble nuts, but taste nutty as well.
Pressed garlic heated slowly in oil creates a heavy infusion of spicy intense garlic flavor in the oil.
Slivers of garlic inserted into slits made in meat or vegetables can impart garlic flavor into the food without using complex seasonings or sauces.
**Cleaning up after garlic
As with any other food, wash your preparation area thoroughly with warm sudsy water. Wash your knives promptly too. The oil in garlic is great for food, but can pit and stain metal--the same way oil from your fingers can. Clean garlic presses with included attachments. If yours doesn't have a cleaning attachment, tease out the remaining bits with a fork. As with all of your other utensils, be sure to use warm sudsy water.
You can rid your hands and countertops of garlic odor by rubbing them with a cut lemon. Some folks also swear by rubbing salt in between your palms to rid them of the flavor. Others just let the garlic fade naturally, over the course of a day.
