How To: Garlic Breath

On New Year’s Eve Michael and I met up with some friends and family for dinner at a downtown restaurant.  It was a good thing we are all close and had carrot cake to cleanse our palates because the veggie sides we all had were absolutely slathered in garlic.  At least I knew my New Year’s kiss partner had suffered the same dilemma!

Not that there’s anything wrong with garlic.  But whoa.

Funny enough though it appears I’ve been stockpiling fresh garlic at Michael’s house.  Every time I buy groceries for a recipe I come home with more garlic “just in case”.  It had produced a surplus and he asked me what I planned to do with it all.

When in doubt, roast it!  Roasted garlic is tres delicious and super versatile.  So much smoother and less vampire-repelling that the raw or sautéed versions.  Our New Year’s restaurant could take a tip here!

Roasted Garlic (it’s so basic it’s not really even a recipe)

Ingredients:

• whole garlic bulbs
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Slice the pointy tops off the garlic…enough that each of the cloves are visible…and place in a baking pan.
2. Drizzle liberally with olive oil.  Tightly cover tray with foil.
3. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or more.  When garlic is golden and easily poked with a fork, it’s ready.

There are soooo many uses for roasted garlic.  We served ours alongside delicious cheeses, pate and crackers as our final long weekend meal.  Tip: the roasted garlic was amazing paired with simple, plain, fresh goat cheese on a crisp cracker.

We found that either a small fondue fork or a rounded knife worked best for getting the caramelized cloves out of their natural paper packaging.  Turning the whole thing upside down and squeezing works too, but I only recommend that if you aren’t sitting around the dinner table.  :)

Other great uses for roasted garlic:

• compound butter (mix roasted garlic with butter and a favourite fresh herb. serve with bread, use to pan cook fish, or serve atop a fresh grilled steak)
• pasta sauce (add to cream sauce with lots of fresh pepper)
• hummus (use instead of raw garlic in a batch of your favourite chick pea or bean dip)
• pizza (the combinations are endless but I like sautéed mushrooms and extra cheese with my roasted garlic)
• roasted garlic olive oil (use lots of extra olive oil in the roasting process.  you can then drain and strain that extra oil for use in other recipes.)

What else do you use your roasted garlic for?  Share with me!