By far the biggest mistake people make when it comes to Italian food is how they handle the king of aromatics: GARLIC. Garlic is very offensive when done wrong. From the way you cut it, to the way you cook it, to the way to eat it, garlic is make or break in a dish. Let’s start with the most popular methods:
1. Whole roasted garlic. You can accomplish this many ways and all are interesting and valid. You can do it inside the husk by simply throwing it in the oven. You put the whole head in a 325 degree oven for about a half an hour till the cloves are golden brown and soft. This produces sweet creamy spreadable garlic. Or you can do the same method but split the heads in half crosswise allowing you to see the cloves caramelizing. Either way produces a very similar result.
2. EVOO Poached Garlic. I love this method the most for a sweet garlic result and this is also how we make our garlic bread at Frank Restaurant. You simply submerge a sauce pot full of garlic cloves in EVOO and cook as slow as possible on top of the stove till the cloves are golden blond and soft. U can then purée that and make a spread or leave them whole and the uses are just limitless. Garlic this way is the most un-offensive to the system. We serve the same garlic whole with seared codfish, roasted eggplant caviar and roasted peppers, and it’s just divinity on the plate. Garlic ,like onions, have a lot of natural sugar that when made this way comes out so nicely. And the oil leftover also becomes just amazing. Now that oil from the poached garlic is just dreamy. I love to olive oil poach fish in it. It’s just endless folks when u are in the know…
Tags: garlic