Once upon a time, someone offered me a garlic pill.
“Pssssst, little girl, wanna garlic pill?”
No offense, but you gotta be kidding me. Garlic is one of my favorite foods, right up there with chocolate and steak. If I’m going to consume garlic, I want to taste it!
The trick with garlic is to buy a nice big bulb and a nice big garlic press. Peel off enough of the bulb to detach a clove, and cut off a sliver at the root end. Put it on a cutting board and whack it with the side of your knife, and the papery stuff will crack and come right off. Stuff that in your garlic press and give it a mighty squeeze, and heaven will come out the little holes.
As an alternative, you can buy a Microplane grater, and grate it. Be careful you don’t grate your fingers!
Many recipes say to saute onions and garlic together, but I disagree. Onions must cook for a lot longer, so I put the garlic in at the end of the onion-cooking time. The same goes for soups or stewed foods. Garlic is very spicy when eaten raw, but you also don’t want to overcook it and lose the flavor.
Some foods just cry out for garlic, like pasta, bread, and potatoes. My all-time favorite is Caesar salad, with fresh garlic and lemon juice, instead of the bottled dressing to which most restaurants have descended (everybody has to be on the Caesar-salad-bandwagon).
Here are a few recipes to try, the next time you’re in a garlic mood. Just remember, if you and your sweetie share the garlic, you won’t notice it when you smooch!
- Complicated original Caesar salad (great reading, even if you’re not going to make it)
- Simplified Caesar salad
- Olive oil bread dip with fresh herbs
- Chicago-style deep dish pizza