One of the staples in our house is garlic confit. In our version, there are only two ingredients, garlic and olive oil. You can add salt, pepper and/or your favorite fresh herb too. The Stinking Rose, in San Francisco, makes a delicious french bread dipping sauce called Bagna Cauda by adding anchovies and butter to the olive oil. A restaurant well worth visiting, by the way.
"We Flavor our garlic with food." The Stinking Rose
I would recommend trying Bagna Cuada at least once. We like the garlic confit for an every day treat, though. All you have to do is put a bunch of garlic in an oven proof dish, cover it with olive oil and roast it at 350 degrees until the garlic softens and begins to brown. As the garlic caramelizes, it becomes sweeter, silky and almost nutty....delicious!
How do we use it?
- We add the cloves to the top of our toast, pasta, soup or salad
- Slather a chicken in the garlic oil and roast
- We make vinaigrette out of the oil
- The oil can be used to brush slices of french bread to make Bruschetta or diced french bread to make croutons
- Stir the garlic cloves into mashed potatoes
- Drop a few cloves on your favorite pasta
- Put the cloves in a small bowl and use an immersion blender to make it your secret ingredient in some dish. It took my non-placing chili from out of the running one year to first place the next year at our church chili cook off. Thank you Mary Margaret!
- It is effective keeping unsavory vampires away. They know to stay our of our neighborhood
The sky is your limit!
It is a lot of work to peel so many cloves for the oil. We have found Costco and sometimes, Sam's Club, carries bags of garlic already peeled. Also, it helps, but is not necessary to have a heart shaped, oven proof dish to cook the garlic in. Hearts make everything taste better!
Maybe one day I will share my chili recipe. ;o) That will take a little coaxing!
Anna Banana Kruchten CRS CRB, Phoenix Broker I am not sure this was what you were looking for, but you are welcome to use it, if you like. Thank you.
