Garlicster

Garlic Fettuccine Alfredo

2012-01-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

Robert from the Ricketville Garlic Farm (awesome website, with lots of info about garlic) just sent this recipe. It's been posted on their Garlic Blog and sounds so delicious. Enjoy!

Garnish with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.
Recipe Yield: 8 servings
1 1/2 cups nonfat evaporated milk
1 medium size bulb of garlic, or 12 cloves
2 tablespoons lowfat cream cheese
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound dry fettuccine pasta

1. Combine 1 1/2 cup evaporated milk and garlic cloves in a pan, heat and simmer until garlic is soft (about 15-20 minutes). Milk will reduce a little.
2. In a blender, puree milk and garlic mixture with cream cheese until smooth.
3. Return mixture to pan and add 1/2 cup nonfat milk and cornstarch. Heat to simmer. Sauce will thicken slightly. Add 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.
4. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Toss sauce with cooked pasta. Season with salt and pepper and serve with parsley sprinkled on top. Serve remaining parmesan cheese separately.

If anyone can get a picture of this send it my way, I'd love to publish it!

Ajoblanco gazpacho soup

2012-01-14T20:08:00.003-05:00

I just discovered a new TV shows that seems amazing. It's called Diary of a Foodie on PBS right after Rick Bayless's show on Saturdays.Today they were traveling around Spain and showed a dished that I had never heard of, it's called ajoblanco, basically a cold almond and garlic soup.
I looked up the recipe and it seems to be very easy, just almonds, garlic and olive oil all in the blender. Here is a link to a recipe that sounds awesome.
I will be making it soon, taking pictures and blogging the recipe. For now, let me know if you've had it and what you thik of it.

Green Garlic and Garlic Scape

2011-11-12T11:48:00.006-05:00

My favourite show, Mexico One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless finally premiered its Season 8 in Buffalo and Toronto. I really don't know why it took so long, since in other PBS stations it's been playing since September!

Anyway, today's episode featured Green Garlic Mojo, which is basically "green garlic stalks" (pictured below) (lots of pictures of green garlic in this link).

Picture courtesy of Sophisticated Peasant
I had never seen green garlic stalks! They basically look like green onions, but apparently they are pure garlic. I was very intrigued by them.

I had heard of ramps before and I know we have them here in Toronto at the beginning of the summer. They are all the rage around here.

Not sure if we were talking of the same thing, I put a question to twitter. I now think that ramps and green garlic stalks are not the same because they have separate Wikipedia entries. Then again, someone mentioned that they are also called Garlic Scapes. According to Wikipedia: "Immature scapes are tender and edible. They are also known as "garlic spears", "stems", or "tops". Scapes generally have a milder taste than the cloves. They are often used in stir frying or braised like asparagus".

Looking for more information about green garlic and garlic scape I ran into 2 Sisters Garlic. Their Garlic and Garlic Scape recipes are highly recommended. They have recipes for Garlic Monkey Bread, Veggie and Chicken Pizza with Scapes, Summertime Herbed Chicken Pasta, Garlic Scape Carbonara, Garlic Scape Pesto, White Bean and Garlic Scape Dip, Simple Garlic Vinaigrette, Emeril's Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette, Sauteed Garlic Scapes, and Grilled Garlic Scapes. All the recipes feature garlic and green garlic (garlic scapes) prominently and look delicious!

Seven Years!

2011-10-28T09:49:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was Garlicster's 7th bloggiversary. We've been bringing garlic happiness since October 27, 2004.

Happy Bloggiversary, Garlicster!

Vegan cauliflower and leek soup

2011-10-28T09:46:00.002-04:00

I bought a cauliflower and as always didn't know how to cook it, I also had leftover leeks and celery. I made a cauliflower and leek soup, with a bit of celery. Of course there was garlic involved, as well as a can of white kidney beans. After boiling everything in vegetable broth for about 40 minutes (I added the beans at the end since they were already cooked), I blended everything with the hand blender. The texture was that of a veloute, and it was just delicious. Highly recommended.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp vegan margarine

1 head of cauliflower

1 leek

2 stalks of celery

1 clove of garlic

1/2 sweet onion

1 carton of vegetable broth

1 can of white kidney beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Taking the bite off raw garlic

2011-06-23T16:03:00.001-04:00

Staci sent the following email:

Hello!

I came across your website while searching for a recipe. You may have the answer to my question in your blog, but I'm so tired tonight, I thought I'd just email you first. :)

So, my question is this (and you may not even have an answer!): do you know how to take the "bite" out of raw garlic? We took our kids to Legoland last year and stopped at a farmer's market, where we came across Majestic Garlic. THE best garlic dip ever! It's raw, vegan, gluten free....I tried to duplicate it after my supply ran out, but it was SO spicy!

Here are the ingredients:
fresh raw garlic
safflower oil
organic flax seed oil/omega 3
lemon juice
sea salt
(there are different varieties which include such things as sun dried tomato/jalepeno, cilantro, etc...)

It has a mayonnaise consistency.

The last time I tried, I just used my cheap food processor. I have since purchased a Blendtec. Do you think using a high quality blender would help emulsify and take the bite out?

Any hints? I am completely addicted to this stuff, but it's pretty pricey.

Thanks in advance for any tips you have!

Staci

I know how to do it with onion (rinse onion slices with hot water, then dip in ice water), but actually have never tried it with garlic.

Does anyone have any idea?
Please leave your comments and I'll publish them later on.

Thanks!!

Moroccan lentil and chickpea soup from 1000 Vegan Recipes

2011-01-23T21:25:00.003-05:00

It is -30 outside, time for a nice warm soup. I looked at 1000 Vegan Recipes looking for something that looked warm, rich and delicious. I found the Moroccan lentil and chickpea soup as a good option. I went to Metro to get all the ingredients, they are pictured below.

Unfortunately none of the ingredients for the Harissa sauce was available. We decided to substitute with A Taste of Thai Garlic Chili Pepper Sauce, which has a good taste but is a bit sweet and not too vinegary.
The soup turned out delicious.

This is not a very good picture, but as you can see it is very tomatoe-ey, with a taste of garlic and ginger and some cumin. Delicious and totally recommended.

Escargot With Rosemary

2011-01-11T21:52:00.004-05:00

This recipe was sent by Anastasia Koutalianos, author of From the Olive Grove: Mediterranean Cooking with Olive Oil.

In Greece, escargot are known as saligaria, and they can be found in dry shrubbery throughout the countryside. After picking our saligaria, we leave them in a covered basket with some flour and a few branches to start the cleansing process. But you can buy them in a can—don’t eat the ones from your garden!
Serve this appetizer with crusty bread and a glass of good red wine.

3 tbsp olive oil
2 cups sliced button mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1 can of 24–36 escargot (without shell), rinsed well
3 tbsp dried rosemary (or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary)
½ tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tbsp wine vinegar
¼ cup red (or white) wine
¼ tsp dried marjoram
½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp flour

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan on medium to high. Add sliced mushrooms and sauté for 5–10 minutes, or until softened. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a new saucepan, heat olive oil on medium heat, add garlic and sauté on low until fragrant. Stir in escargot, rosemary, salt, pepper, and the cooked mushrooms.
Reduce heat to low, and add wine vinegar, wine, marjoram, thyme, and flour.
Simmer for 10–15 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Excerpt from From the Olive Grove cookbook. Printed with permission and published by Arsenal Pulp Press.

It sounds delicious and sooo garlicky!

She also has a few other recipes in her book, such as Faki (lentil soup,vegetarian), Fasolada (romano bean soup, vegetarian), Psarosoupa (fish chowder), Oxtail barley soup, Stifatho (Venison & Pearl Onion) Stew, Roasted leg of lamb (super-garlicky), Mousaka (Eggplant Lasagna), Pastitsio (Beef & Noodle Casserole), Shrimp with Feta (also super-garlicky), Gigandes (Giant Baked Lima Beans, vegetarian and garlicky!), and lots of other Greek style dishes.

Chilaquiles for new year's breakfast

2011-01-01T20:26:00.004-05:00

This morning, I made chilaquiles accompanied by a side of sunny side up fried eggs and some refried beans. I covered the whole thing with sliced red onion and it was all delicious and vegetarian.
I admit this is not a very garlicky recipe, but I did use garlic when making the salsa for the chilaquiles. I used cilantro, white onion, fresh tomatoes, jalapenos and garlic, all liquified in the blender and then cooked in a bit of olive oil for about 15 minutes. I used Que Pasa unsalted organic tortilla chips for the chilaquiles, really good and non-greasy.

Black Garlic Olive Tapenade

2010-05-23T10:06:00.003-04:00

This recipe was sent by Lilly, and can also be found at Black Garlic Olive.

1 Can (6 oz) of Olives of your choice
2 Anchovy Filets
4 cloves Black Garlic
2 Roasted Red Peppers
2 tbs Capers
2-3 Leaves Basil
1 tbs Lemon Juice
2 tbs Olive Oil

Directions:
Wash and strain olives. Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until mixture becomes coarse and pulpy.
Serve on slices of French bread.

It definitely looks delicious!

Black Ink Squid Linguini in lemon black garlic and anchovy sauce

2010-04-25T17:13:00.002-04:00

Chef Oscar Lippe was nice enough to send this recipe. The original link is here.

By Lorraine Cyr

¼ pound freshly made black squid linguini

4 cloves garlic

4 cloves black garlic

1 flat anchovy fillet

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest

A pinch of dried hot red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan with more served with meal

Directions

Fill 6 quart pan ¾ full of water bring to boil for pasta. Thinly slice garlic and finely chop anchovy. Cook pasta until almost al dente (with fresh pasta a minute or less). Drain pasta and save 1½ cup of water. In a 12 inch heavy skillet cook garlic in oil over moderate heat stirring until golden. Remove skillet from heat stir in anchovy, zest, red pepper flake, black garlic and add ½ cup pasta water.

Add pasta to garlic mixture and cook over moderately high heat, tossing and if necessary add more pasta water to keep pasta moist, about 2 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Add minced parsley and grated cheese toss and serve with additional parmesan on the side.

Serves

Garlic Peel, Garlic Chop and Garlic Keep

2010-01-22T13:14:00.002-05:00

Last night I got a package with some cool garlic-related kitchen gadgets from Koopeh Designs.

Here is the Garlic Keep, I put the two garlic heads that I currently have at home, but it fits about six or eight. It's made of ceramic and airs the garlic through small holes in the bottom half.

Here is the Garlic Chop, to chop the garlic you put the garlic clove inside and rotate it left and right. The little stubs it has push the clove and make the chopping way faster and easier.

And the Garlic Peel. It's made of plastic and you put the unpeeled garlic clove inside and roll it around. I found it a bit difficult to get the clove peeled but at the end it worked.

I'll have more detailed usage info soon, but meanwhile I can say that I recommend these gadgets for any garlic lover out there.

Green garlic

2009-10-27T10:24:00.003-04:00

I made garlic bread last week, and the garlic turned out green! I made it with olive oil, not butter, because of my allergies, but apparently it does it sometimes also with butter. Ah well, I guess we know it really does happened, as stated in this post: Green Garlic.

Vegan creamy leek and potato soup

2009-10-04T19:40:00.006-04:00

How to make a creamy soup when no milk or cream is to be added? I found a few recipes but they all said to mix everything with the blender, but then the leeks would not be visible. I wanted the soup to be creamy but the leeks to be recognizable within the soup. To make this recipes you need to prepare the leeks and the potatoes in separate pots, this will allow to puree the potatoes and leave the chopped leeks to add chunky texture to the soup.

I used:
4 cups potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large leeks, chopped (there are 3 in the picture but I only used 2)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups vegetable broth or water (or more depending on how thick it is and/or how liquid you like it
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
In a large pot brown the garlic in the olive oil, add the potatoes and sautee until lightly browned. Add the broth to the potatoes and boil until softened.

In a separate pot, sautee the leeks in the olive oil for 2 minutes.

When the potatoes are cooked in the broth, puree with the hand blender, the texture will be that of a vichyssoise. Add the leeks and simmer for 2 minutes for flavour.

Add the chopped ginger and the curry powder to the soup. This will make the soup look a bit yellow, not the usual white, but will give it a distinctive flavour of deliciousness. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve and enjoy!

Grilled lettuce

2009-09-12T10:17:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I tried this delicious recipe and a totally new thing for me, I knew that the dish existed because I saw it once on the Food Network, but I had never thought of trying it. I was trying to come up with original veggie ideas for grilling and that's when I remembered the lettuce. I did not follow the recipe on the Food Network, but I followed the technique and main idea.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
3 heads of romaine lettuce

Instructions:
To make dressing, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Slice each head of lettuce in two, lengthwise.

Brush the lettuce with the dressing.

Grill the lettuce on both sides for 5 minutes total. Brush with the dressing when turning around. You don't want to grill it for too long or it will wilt. You want it to be warm and grilled, but not soggy and wilted.

Here is the grilled lettuce. The picture is not very good, but I can assure you it was crunchy and soft at the same time, and it had nicely absorbed the delicious Asian-inspired dressing. Each person ate a whole half of lettuce and other veggies as well.

Garlic By Thibert

2009-08-18T21:30:00.001-04:00

Garlic By Thibert
Originally uploaded by ravenswift

This garlic was seen at the Saturday Farmers' Market in Windsor, Ontario.

Smoked garlic on pizza

2009-05-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

David Zimand sent us another recipe with a delicious-looking picture.

Smoked garlic on pizza

Smoked and slow grilled garlic atop smoked and grilled tomato, sun dried tomato, and home smoked mozzarella on top of pizza.
a little olive oil drizzle, thick ground black pepper and black sea salt.
Garlic top chopped off, slow grilled with hickory and cedar chips to accentuate taste and slow cook. Result: a sweet and yet smokey pungent garlic taste.

He also had this comment about it:

I find every preparation garlic develops a different taste - this one being complex and yet retaining the best qualities of garlic.

I didn't know how to smoke garlic, so I asked him, here is his reply:

Every way of cooking and preparing garlic will yield different results, different flavors, whether pungent, sweet, etc. Grilling, baking, smoking, etc. will bring out more of a sweet taste and less of a strong pungent garlic taste like with fresh garlic.

To smoke - chop up finely and put into a rolling paper. Light. Just kidding.

Chop top off of entire clove - so that the individual cloves are exposed. Put onto wood plank so that garlic is not exposed directly to flames or grate of the grill - unless you want to dramatically reduce cooking time and lessen smokey flavor.
For even greater smokey flavor put wood chips, pine cones, etc. under grate, wood plank on top of grate and then place garlic on top of wood plank.
I prepare the smoked tomatoes and artichoke the same way.
Since garlic will have shrunk from cooking, just peel off outer layers to expose garlic, then place on pizza and cook - as in photo - or spread on bread or mash and combine with olive oil.

Haha, funny and delicious.
Enjoy everyone!

Caramelized Garlic

2009-05-01T15:32:00.003-04:00

David Zimand from Creagency sent us this delicious recipe for caramelized garlic. He says he's a garlic fanatic so welcome to the club!

Caramelized Garlic

Peel, crush lightly til falls apart. Saute with demerara sugar, a tiny bit of salt and voila, caramelized garlic.

Can be eaten alone or put on other dishes as I often do (says David).

He also has a whole page on Flickr dedicated to food, the pictures are amazing: Food Book.

Pasta with vegan pesto and mushrooms

2009-02-10T21:10:00.000-05:00

This recipe is super garlicky and not for the faint of heart. To make it a bit friendlier decrease the amount of garlic in the pesto.

Ingredients:
2 cups tightly pressed fresh basil
2 heads of garlic
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
3 cups assorted mushrooms (I used shitake and cremini, but you can use portobello, white, oyster, etc.)
Fresh long pasta (I used fetuccine from St. Lawrence Market)
Salt and pepper to taste
Dehydrated garlic to taste
1 oz cooking sherry

Instructions:
There are 2 parts to this recipe, the pesto, which is raw, and the pasta with mushrooms.

To make the pesto:
Finely chop the tomatoes or chop them in the food processor. Add some salt and leave them in a strainer to get rid of the excess water.

After about 10 minutes, the tomatoes will be rid of their excess water. Put them back in the food processor along with the basil and the peeled cloves of one head of garlic. You can also add about one teaspoon of dehydrated garlic if you want. Chop finely.

When all the ingredients are finely chopped in the food processor, add about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. This will give the pesto its saucy consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

To make the pasta and mushrooms:
Chop the mushrooms and the cloves of 1 head of garlic.

Stir fry the chopped garlic in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, when the garlic is softened, add the mushrooms and keep stir frying. Add salt and pepper to taste. When mushrooms are cooked (about 4 minutes) add one shot of sherry. Cover and let boil for about 1 minute.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in lots of salted water according to instructions. The fresh pasta from St. Lawrence Market takes about 4 minutes to be al dente.
When pasta is ready, toss it into the warm soupy mushrooms (my pasta looks red because I got tomato pasta).

Let the pasta absorb the mushroom juices for about 1 minute.
Serve in a big spaghetti bowl. Add the pesto on top.

Enjoy, and be careful with all that garlic. No, seriously, I was kind of crying at the end of my dinner. But it was goood!

Roasted Garlic Express

2009-01-23T09:39:00.004-05:00

Tina sent me an email asking for help. She wants to know if the Roasted Garlic Express can be found anywhere in the West Coast in Canada. Here is a picture of the garlic roaster.

It seems like a great gadget for any garlic-lover to have. It is made and marketed in the USA.
Tina found a place in Canada that sells it, it is called hedonics.com, but they only ship to Central Canada, so she cannot get it in British Columbia.
Does anyone know any other place in Canada, preferably British Columbia, where this amazing garlic roaster can be found? Any help will be appreciated.

Bonus, there are garlic recipes in the Roasted Garlic Express website, yum!

Tomato Garlic Starter paired with Bharat Mary

2008-12-22T10:03:00.002-05:00

Mike from Sub Rosa Spirits sent us 2 recipes, here's the first one, paired with cocktails he makes at the distillery:

2 medium sliced Tomato
1 medium Onion [yellow, white or sweet Walla Walla is best] chopped coarsely
3-4 jalapeno. Seeded and chopped
2 cloves Garlic, crushed and sliced or diced or run through a garlic press
1/4 teaspoons - Cayenne pepper powder
2 Cardamom pods [seeds removed if you like]
4-5 Cloves
Salt as per taste
2 Tbs. Butter
2-3 Mint leaves, coarsely chopped. Chiffinod if you want to get fancy.

Here's what you do:

1) CRUSH Cardamom and cloves with a mortar and pestle. Grind to a coarse powder. I often remove the seeds from the pod, but it's not essential.

2) HEAT butter in a pan and add vegetables [tomato, onion, peppers] and fry for 5 minutes on medium flame, stirring occasionally. Take care not to break or excessively mash tomato slices.

3) ADD garlic. Let it warm and mix with the heated vegetables. Do not overcook the garlic, lest it turn bitter. Maybe 3 minutes additional time for the combined mixture.

4) ADD spices and salt and adjust the taste. Remove from flame, top with mint leaves

5) SERVE hot with roti [traditional Indian flat bread] or with a side of rice.

For a cocktail, serve with this variant on Blood Mary using Sub Rosa Saffron vodka. This Saffron vodka contains a bit of toasted cumin, coriander, ginger, galangal, cayenne pepper, black pepper and of course saffron. Very aromatic and heady. Makes a killer Bloody Marry.

Bharat Mary
2 oz. Sub Rosa Saffron vodka
3 dashes Worcestershire
1 dash Peychauds bitters [or orange bitters]
3 dashes hot sauce (or more)
Tomato juice (to fill)
Celery salt (to taste)

Stir in mixing tin with ice. Strain into a Rocks or Old Fashion glass over ice. Garnish with Indian pickled carrots and peppers. This is basically a Bloody Mary without the horseradish.

A new take on "The Real Pasta Primavera"

2008-12-10T21:35:00.004-05:00

Earlier this year I blogged about The Real Pasta Primavera. I have heard many good things about the recipe and it was even reproduced on a site called cookware.com.
So I decided to experiment with that same recipe adding more vegetable variety.
This recipe is vegan.

Ingredients for 2 persons:
Fresh fettuccine, enough for 2 persons (I got mine at St. Lawrence Market, I bought the red pepper flavoured one, I would have preferred the basil flavoured but they were out).
One bunch of basil, chopped.
1 bunch rapini.
1 pound fresh small tomatoes, very finely chopped (I did not use grape or cherry tomatoes, the ones I used were slightly bigger than cherry tomatoes, like the size of a golf ball).
Baby spinach (I used about 2 cups, but note that it wilts and reduces its size).
6 cloves of super finely chopped garlic.
1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced.
About 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil.
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or you can substitute salt+garlic powder for garlic salt, but I didn't have any).
Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions:
Boil salted water and prepare it for the pasta, I added a little bit of cooking oil to the boiling water.
Slice rapini diagonally, use the whole thing, including both stems and flower. Pieces will be thin since they have been sliced diagonally. In a smaller pot, boil salted water. When boiling, "blanche" the rapini for 3 minutes.
Discard any tomato "juice" after chopping them, you want them on the "dry" side (non-juicy).

The following step involves "semi-heating" the sauce but not cooking it. I just didn't want the sauce to cool the pasta (as it usually happens with the pasta primavera). At low heat, combine the tomatoes, garlic, rapini, olives, spinach, basil and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and garlic powder. Heat it up for approximately 4 minutes, you don't want it to "cook" any of the ingredients, just to warm them up.

Now it's time to boil the pasta. Cook it al dente, take it out immediately, drain it and put it back in the pot (without the water). Pour the sauce on top and keep it at low heat for 2 minutes. This will distribute the heat.
Serve immediately.

Pescado al mojo de ajo (fish in toasted garlic)

2008-11-26T15:42:00.003-05:00

Bill Moran sent me the following recipe from his book Cocina Ranchera, a book on Mexican ranch cooking. In fact, he has 4 different cookbooks, and they all sound super delicious. Click on this link for more information.

Loyal readers may remember a post from almost 4 years ago now, "Mojo de ajo prawns (crayfish)". This is a similar recipe except with fish, but the basics are the same, you can use mojo de ajo for shrimp or other seafood as well.

Here is what he wrote about the recipe:

I enjoyed this dish very much at Restaurante René in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico in the state of Tamaulipas. When I went back to get the recipe, on another visit, it wasn’t on the menu, so here is my version. At Restaurante René the menu read Trucha al Mojo de Ajo, however, perch, catfish, red snapper, or other similar fish may be used. “Trucha” means trout.

And here it is:

6 to 8 Large Cloves Garlic, coarsely chopped
4 Catfish Fillets, 4 to 6 oz. each, sliced thin
3 to 4 TBS. Oil 1 TBS. Butter or Margarine
1 - 2 TBS. Cilantro, chopped 2 - 3 TBS. Fresh Lime Juice
Salt to Taste 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 C. Corn Flour

Rub fish fillets with lime juice coating thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove fish from refrigerator, dry with a paper towel, and dredge with the flour/corn flour mixture. Heat oil and butter in medium hot skillet. Add garlic and saute 30 or 40 seconds then add fish and fry until brown on both sides. Place cooked fish on platter and keep warm. Remove garlic from oil, add lime juice and cilantro and cook until cilantro is wilted. Pour lime juice, cilantro, and oil over fish fillets and serve.
Good with a tomatillo salsa on the side.

Delicious, I say!

The Joy of Cooking and The Joy Kitchen

2008-11-04T16:06:00.005-05:00

Last week I got an email notifying me about the Joy of Cooking and its new website, The Joy Kitchen. My mother used to have The Joy of Cooking and I used to consult it a lot in my early days of learning how to cook.

The Joy of Cooking is celebrating is 75th anniversary (in 2006, actually) and it is credited to Irma S. Rombauer (the original author), Marion Rombauer Becker (her daughter), and Ethan Becker (their grandson and son, respectively).
It is Ethan Becker who took care of this latest edition includes a note from Julia Child dated 2004, who was consulted as an authority for this revision and helped with the revisions. A letter from Ethan Becker dated 2006 explains all this and also tells about the sampling of the recipes, the work it took to bring this 75th anniversary edition to print, etc.
I do not have my mom's edition with me to compare, and I don't remember exactly what it included, but this edition has a lot of helpful information and ideas, including A History of the Joy of Cooking by Anne Mendelson. Apparently the first instruction that the original Joy included was to stand facing the stove and that's how Anne Mendelson named her book published in 2003. It is an appropriate addition to this edition of Joy.

The book also includes information about nutrition, and an explanation of the Nutrition Facts sticker and how to read food labels. I'm pretty sure this is something recent in the book, since the inclusion of food labels and nutrition facts is quite recent (definitely less than 75 years).
It also includes a heading about vegetarian diets. Too bad it says "in the United States, some vegetarians happily eat chicken, fish, eggs, and dairy products", ah well, people who eat chicken and fish are definitely not vegetarian, they may not eat red meat but they should not label themselves vegetarian. Too bad a misconception like this is included in such an important book.

There is a section about entertaining, including details that go beyond the menu, such as table decor, table setting, seating, etc. It also includes suggested menus for holidays, special occasions, 30 minute recipes, etc. All with recipes that can be found in the book. A suggested menu for a vegetarian event includes:

White bean dip with rosemary and garlic

Tuscan bread and tomato soup

Gazpacho

Mushroom barley soup

Wonton soup

There are, of course, lots of other recipes for vegetarian dishes throughout the book.

The beverages menu has section has a great explanation about coffee and different types of coffee pots, including recipes for different types of coffee beverages. The section also includes explanations for juices, punches, and other soft drinks. But, and this is what is super exciting, there is a section for wine and beer, and a section for cocktails and party drinks. No more fiddling around to find the perfect margarita or martini recipe, everything is clearly explained with measurements and everything.

This is the most complete cooking book you'll ever find, and what better than getting this new updated edition instead of going back to your mom's recipe books. It is published by Simon & Schuster and retails for $35 in the US and $39.99 in Canada. Definitely an investment worth making.

On a further note, I am proud to say that they spell "portobello" for the mushrooms, which is how I've been spelling it all along. And if such an authority in cooking spells it like that, I very well take it that such is the correct spelling.

How to Make Garlic Infused Olive Oil

2008-10-20T15:01:00.001-04:00

The following instructions for garlic infused olive oil were written by Jamie Sward. I think it is really important to have it here on Garlicster, since I've been asked a few times how to prepare the garlic olive oil.

With the weather getting colder, and guests on the way, I wanted to make some delicious garlic dipping sauce for some homemade bread sticks. I'm a big fan of dipping bread in olive oil, with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. So tasty! I thought this would also be the perfect time to use some brand new stainless steel kitchenware that I purchased last weekend. While I was researching recipes, I learned something very important about the process of making garlic-infused olive oil. One might think it's as simple as dropping a few cloves of garlic into a bottle of oil. WRONG! Do it this way and you risk botulism poisoning which can be deadly!

Clostridium Botulinum is a bacterium found in most soil and since garlic, being a root vegetable, is ripped from the ground, traces of this deadly bacteria are still left clinging to it. Since Botulism is an anaerobic bacteria (meaning that it thrives in an environment lacking oxygen), it dies in the presence of oxygen. Olive oil essentially seals out oxygen and when you mix food in with the oil, you have an ideal breeding ground for these potentially deadly bacteria. It is absolutely essential that you sterilize any food you plan on mixing with oil, including garlic. It's recommended that you heat the oil to around 200F, sauté your garlic in the oil. The creator of Emerilware kitchenware and cookware, Emeril Lagasse actually recommends sautéing the garlic over medium heat for between 3 and 5 minutes. Do not...I repeat do not soak your garlic in the oil prior to cooking it. While there's something to be said for planning ahead, when it comes to safely making garlic-infused olive oil, it pays to wait till the last minute.

End of summer pesto

2008-10-14T21:13:00.002-04:00

Ann sent me this recipe:
I have been diligently awaiting this moment all summer long. While I have been up to my elbows in pears, and shortly apples, there it was. Chastely waving in the breeze, tempting my senses. So today I rewarded my summer of hard efforts with PESTO!
Is there anything more heady than that aroma of warm basil, freshly picked, filling the whole house with that lovely green scent? I have been fiercely guarding this patch against marauding snails~~~ who wanted it as much as I did. The leaves were as big as my fist. Pesto turns even humble macaroni into something extra ordinary! If you don't remember pesto, you should reacquaint yourself with the emerald delight. If you haven't tried it yet, here's the recipe:
Pesto Sauce
2 Cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
3/4 Cup grated parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not that powdered junk!)
3/4 Cup good olive oil
2 Tablespoons pine nuts (or walnuts)
4 cloves garlic
Put all ingredients into the blender, and blend on medium speed, stopping blender occasionally to scrape the sides, until sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes. Serve over your favorite hot cooked pasta.

Now I would probably remove the parmesan cheese, but for sure I want to make this deliciously herby garlicky pesto.

Los Tules Chicken Sandwich

2008-10-08T10:11:00.003-04:00

Don sent me this recipe of the chicken sandwich they had in Puerto Vallarta. It looks super delicious, the combination of sweet pineapple and cheesy mozzarella, mmh mmh (damn milk allergies). OK, for everyone's enjoyment here it is.

Ingredients:

Two chicken breasts (boneless)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1-8-oz. can of crushed pineapple with juice
½ cup slivered almonds
6 sandwich rolls or hamburger buns
Tomato slices
Tabasco, hot pepper or buffalo sauce of your choice

Bake two boneless chicken breasts wrapped in foil to keep moist. Approx. 30 minutes at 350 degrees (F) until tender. Shred the breasts into a layer in a twelve inch frying pan.

Mix in the slivered almonds and set the heat to medium. Pour the crushed pineapple and juice into a bowl and blend in the hot sauce to taste. Note: you will probably add more sauce the next time. Pour the mixture into the chicken and stir together.

When the mixture is warm add one cup of mozzarella cheese and fold together until mixed and the cheese is melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly so the cheese holds the mixture together.

Butter the buns and season with garlic salt and place in the oven to toast. Serve with a slice of tomato and a little Miracle Whip or mayo. Makes six servings. Leftover chicken is excellent in a tossed salad.

Vegan caprese-inspired salad

2008-08-01T13:27:00.004-04:00

This is an unconventional caprese salad, since it is vegan so it does not contain any cheese, it also includes non-traditional ingredients like onion. I titled it caprese-inspired salad. It is super-garlicky and delicious!

Ingredients:
1 package firm tofu
1 bunch of basil
2 beefsteak tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 red onion
2 TBS sliced kalamata olives
1 TBS imitation bacon bits
1 TSP honey
1 TSP mustard
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 TS Maggi seasoning (if desired for the dressing)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions:
Use the garlic press or chop one clove of garlic very finely, mix it in 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar. Add salt and pepper to the mix.
Chop the tofu in half an inch cubes and put them in a container covered with the garlic-balsamic vinegar. Set aside.

Chop the tomatoes in 1/2 inch squares and basil. Set aside.
Slice the red onion really thin. Set aside.
This is how I prepare the dressing:
Chop very finely or use the garlic press with 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. Mix in the olive oil with approximately 1/2 tsp of salt. Add the mustard and mix until it emulsifies a bit. Then add the honey and keep mixing (I use a fork but if you prefer you can use a whisk). Add the Maggi seasoning, if you want, and finally the balsamic vinegar. Try it for taste and add more oil or vinegar according to your preferences.
Now, the trick to make delicious onion for the salad, onion that is not too strong for eating raw: Add the fine slices to the dressing and cover it all with it. Let stand about 45 minutes to an hour (you can do 15 minutes, but it is less effective). The onion will "cook" with the vinegar. It will leave a delicious flavour in the vinaigrette and it will not be too strong for eating raw.
When it's time to serve, just mix all the ingredients together. Delicious, nutritious, low calorie and vegan. And most importantly... plenty of garlic!

Been very busy

2008-07-31T14:12:00.005-04:00

Sorry guys for the lack of posting. I've been really busy doing stuff... summer and all. But I have been cooking and will post recipes soon.

Meanwhile I got an advance copy of The Complete Book of Garlic, by Ted Jordan Meredith. It is, according to their tagline, "a guide for gardeners, growers and serious cooks". I've taken a look and it looks great. It is indeed more a guide for gardeners and growers. And it has no recipes, but some tips on how to use it when cooking. I'll have a more complete review in a few days. All you need to know now is that it is coming out in August and will be available at Amazon and other retailers. And yes, sadly, we Canadians will end up paying more for the same product, it retails for $39.95 in the US and for $45.95 in Canada. That's 15% more in Canada, when at today's rate it should retail at $40.83 in Canada. Shame on publishers, shame!
OK, rant over. Happy garlicking!

White bean salad (ensalada de alubias)

2008-07-11T13:20:00.004-04:00

OK, so this recipe has no garlic, but is delicious anyway, and has lots of onion. It is also vegan.
I wanted to make an "ensalda de alubias" like the one I had a long time ago in an Argentinian restaurant called La Taba in Mexico City.

I was looking for alubias, the white beans that is used in Spain to make fabada, apparently they are called fabes in English, but I couldn't find them anywhere. Even at St. Lawrence Market, where there is a guy who has every bean and rice imaginable, when I asked for fabes they wanted to give me fava beans, which are not the same. And when I looked up fabes on the internet it always took me to a generic beans page, so I tried to look for substitutes. I ended up buying baby lima beans. They were good enough.

I soaked 1.5 cups of dry baby lima beans overnight in the fridge.
Then I cooked them in the pressure cooker for 10 minutes with the heart of one celery, 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil, half an onion, 2 cloves of garlic slightly crushed and 3 bay leaves. I let the pressure cooker cool naturally and then I opened it.

Meanwhile I chopped about 3/4 red onion and covered it with the juice of 2 lemons and about 1 teaspoon of sea salt. I did this to marinade the onion and make it less strong for eating.

When the beans were cooked, I removed the celery, the garlic, the bay leaves and the onion and drained the beans keeping about 1/4 cup of the cooking water. I let the beans totally cool (or you can rinse them in cold water as well, but they are delicate and may peel if you do that, I recommend just letting them cool down). I then added the cooking water and beans to the lemon+onion concoction. I then used 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil and (here's the secret ingredient) 1 teaspoon powdered dry oregano. Mix everything and add salt and pepper to taste.

The salad was delicious!

Spinach and sundried tomato linguine

2008-06-02T21:10:00.001-04:00

I'm still around. I've just been really busy with work and life and stuff... no, no good gossip, nothing new, just busy.

OK, so today I have the recipe for spinach and sundried tomato pasta. This was a delicious recipe I made a couple of weeks ago. I used Catelli Healthy Harvest (whole wheat) Linguine.
Ingredients:
3 cloves of garlic
2 cups chopped fresh plum tomatoes
2 cups chopped sundried tomato (in oil)
Club House Garlic Plus

1/2 a cup chopped Kalamata olives
1 cup fresh basil
3/4 package fresh spinach
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Oregano
Dried cayenne pepper
Linguine

For the sauce:
Chop the garlic and fry it in the olive oil.

Then add the fresh tomato, oregano, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper, as well as the Garlic Plus seasoner. Sautee for a few minutes.

The sundried tomato and olives go now.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta to two-thirds of the time indicated in the package, for example if it says to cook for 8 minutes, cook it for only 5. You want the pasta to be kinda hard.
When the pasta is cooked (sorta), add it to the sauce along with the spinach and the fresh basil. Salt and pepper to taste. Leave it for approximately 2 minutes, covered. The spinach will be wilted but not totally consumed.

Serve in a pasta bowl and enjoy!

(For those of you non-vegans or non-allergic to milk products, you can add some grated parmiggiano here).

Comfort Food, by Kate Jacobs

2008-05-08T11:27:00.002-04:00

When I first heard of this book, I thought it was a cooking book, because of the title. But it is a novel, by the same author of The Friday Night Knitting Club. I didn't have a chance to read that book but some of my knitting friends said it was good, so I was glad to have the opportunity to read her next novel.
It is the story of Gus Simpson, the most famous cooking celebrity in the Food Channel. Gus is going through some changes in life and is forced to evaluate who she is and what she has done so far with her life, including her family and her professional life.
It is nice and agreeable read. Jacobs's style is best-selling type, easy to read and entertaining to follow. It has a lot of pop-cultural references and I wonder if she based any of her characters on real people, not that I would know who they are, but sometimes insiders recognize someone they know in this type of books.
The book has really good character development and an easy to follow story. It is in the chick-lit style but I believe it appeals to a wider demographic, from mothers and grandmothers to young women.
I have to confess that I developed a fondness for the characters and I even shed a couple of tears when I was reading their story. I read the whole book in less than a week and I kept looking forward to reading, I wanted to know what would happen to these people.
I really recommend this book as an easy, agreeable read.
Although it talks a lot about food (and a lot about Spanish food, which I looooooove!!) it has no recipes.
Kate Jacobs has a website and a blog.

Derlea garlic products do not disappoint

2008-04-19T19:52:00.003-04:00

Last week I got a batch of Derlea garlic products, including Minced Garlic, Garlic & Ginger Puree, Roasted Garlic "Crunch" and Roasted Garlic Puree.

I have to admit that I didn't know what to expect, although I had seen some of the jars at Sobey's on Front St., I had never got them always preferring fresh garlic. But as loyal readers know, I've had problems keeping the garlic, mainly I think my apartment is too humid or something, and it sometimes sprouts or gets soft.
These jarred garlic products came to solve the problem. The minced garlic is just your regular minced garlic but in a quite convenient format. It retails for approximately $2.25 and is worth it if you have the "sprouting garlic" problems I've talked about.

The garlic and ginger puree is good, and convenient for cooking soups or oriental foods. But the roasted garlic..... oh my god, it is fenomenal. The roasted garlic puree was delicious over baked potato wedges (sorry I couldn't take a picture because I accidentally left my camera, and my lunchbag! at work). I just cut the potatoes in wedges (without peeling them), put them in the oven, sprinkled them with a bit of olive oil and roasted garlic puree. They were delicious. I really recommend it.

The roasted garlic crunch was a bit of a mystery, with the name "crunch" I didn't quite understand what it meant. Well, it is basically dehydrated garlic, great to toss over salads, pasta or pizza. I had it over pasta in lieu of parmesan cheese (since as my loyal readers know, I can't have any dairy products), and it added an extra delicious flavour to it. All in all, delicious garlic goodness.

Also, some readers asked me recently how to substitute jarred garlic products for fresh garlic in recipes. Well, The Derlea Foods website actually shows conversion measurements for those interested, for example, 1/2 teaspoon of chopped or minced garlic is equivalent to 1 clove of fresh garlic (more info here).

I still think I'll like to try the garlic with jalapeno product, I've seen it at Sobey's.
(Picture shamefully borrowed from Derlea Foods website).

He said beer, she said wine, by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old

2008-04-13T14:50:00.002-04:00

I've been super busy lately and haven't had much time to blog at all. But I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to talk about a great book I got recently: He said beer, she said wine, by Sam Calagione and Marnie Old.
I was really looking forward to this book, especially because it's published by DK which is one of my favourite publishers. I recently wrote about another book that they published, Morimoto. Well, they did not disappoint this time. The book has great pictures and a good amount of text as well, and is a great fun read.
Sam Calagione is the beer guy and Marnie Old is the wine woman. At the beginning of the book they explain who they are and why they are defending beer/wine. Then follows a short history of wine and beer, how they started to be part of culture, and who were the peoples drinking them. They also defend their choice of drink.
I particularly liked the story of wine, how it is produced, the difference between red and white. since I've been trying to learn a bit more about all of it (I am getting there, my readers may remember that I rate Educating Peter by Lettie Teague. Well, I can now distinguish some types of wines, and I now go beyond only knowing that there's red and white). It is very useful to have a reference about wine flavours and what it all means. I especially like the "travel guide" approach, which is not surprising since DK makes so many travel guides. The same approach comes a bit later with an explanation and "guide" to beer.
Later the Food Debate section comes, which explains food pairing for both wine and beer. There are sections for pairings with cheese, veggies, sandwiches, pizza and pasta, spicy food, shellfish, fish, poultry, meat and desserts. Quite interesting to learn about how beer can be paired with some food that are usually associated with wine, and viceversa. The only problem is that I believe it may be difficult to get half of the beers and wines in the book here in Ontario. We are at the mercy of the LCBO, and if they do not bring those wines, I believe we have little choice. Now I know how to do substitutions with yarns, so a similar approach may be useful for the beers and wines presented in the book. Nevertheless it is super interesting and worth a read.
At the end of the book there are a few recipes with suggested pairings of both beer and wine, the idea is to have a few friends or family over and see which drink is preferred with the foods. Lots of fun, indeed.
All in all, this is a great book that I totally enjoyed reading and having. It is a great reference and includes user-friendly and fun information for learning about both beer and wine.

Oh, one extra thing, the retail price for Canada is $28.

Chickpea and spinach curry

2008-03-26T22:19:00.003-04:00

Since I don't eat any dairy products or milk ingredients at all, I have been a bit concerned about my calcium intake. What else can I do to consume more calcium. I did some research and it happens that spinach is a really good source of calcium, so I decided to try new spinach recipes, containing garlic, of course. I made up this recipe today. The recipe is vegan.

Chop one whole onion and three cloves of garlic and sautee them in two teaspoons vegetable oil.

When onion is transparent, add three teaspoons of soy sauce, three teaspoons curry powder, the juice of half a lemon and one tablespoon chopped ginger (I used the one that you buy in a jar and is already chopped). Stir well and cook for about five more minutes.

Add one can of chickpeas semi-drained, and one can chopped tomatoes. Let cook for about 10 minutes to absorb all the flavours.

Finally add one bag baby spinach and stir just until wilted (not more than 2 minutes).

Serve with rice, I used basmati and it was delicious!

Pasta with white mushroom sauce

2008-03-16T14:13:00.002-04:00

This recipe is vegetarian and vegan.

As many of my readers know, I am allergic to all dairy ingredients. This time I decided to make my own pasta with white sauce, taking special care of not adding any dairy (most people will use cream for a mushroom white sauce), and of course, very garlicky!

Ingredients for 3-4 servings:
Olive oil
One cup shallots, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Crushed red pepper, if desired
All the sherry left in the bottle (OK, I used all the sherry left in the bottle because I didn't have much left, I suggest about 1/2 a cup)
4 to 5 cups chopped mix mushrooms, I used cremini, oyster, shiitake and portobello
Cooked pasta (enough for the number of persons), I used multi-coloured fussilli

Sautee shallots and garlic in the olive oil until brown, be careful not to burn them.

Add the mushrooms and sautee until cooked (about 4 minutes).

Add all the sherry left in the bottle (OK, about 1/2 a cup). Add a teaspoon white flour for thickening the sauce. Also, add salt and pepper to taste and crushed red pepper, if desired. Stir until flour is disolved. Simmer for about 4 minutes making sure it does not dry out.

Serve over cooked pasta.

Delicious!

The real pasta primavera

2008-03-08T18:46:00.004-05:00

This dish is so garlicky it's dangerous! This is the authentic pasta primavera from Italy. There's a huge snowstorm in Toronto, so I decided to channel spring by making spaghettini primavera, primavera means spring in Italian and in Spanish. And you don't have to cook anything (except the pasta, raw pasta is not good to eat, you guys!) There's a bit of chopping involved, though.

Ingredients per person:
One cup fresh tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup fresh basil
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
One portion of spaghettini (I used about one inch roundful per person).

Cook the pasta in boiling water, but make sure it's al dente. You don't want soft spaghettini for this. I used Catelli Bistro Sundried Tomato and Basil spaghettini. But you can use just regular pasta. Spaghettini is recommended because it is thin. Capelli D'Angelo also works really good with this recipe.

Finely chop the tomatoes, garlic cloves and basil.

When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and immediately (don't let the pasta cool), toss with the olive oil and the chopped tomatoes, basil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately. I did not sprinkle with parmesan because, as my regular readers know, I'm allergic to milk products, but everyone else can do this to enjoy this delicious spaghettini primavera.

Vegan rajas

2008-02-13T20:29:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry about the lack of posting. I've been around, but not much cooking/posting lately.
Today I have a vegan take into the rajas con crema that I blogged about some time ago.
I used:
4 fresh poblano peppers
Two cloves of garlic
Half to a quarter of a white onion
One small can of corn
Vegetable oil
Salt to taste

The first thing to do is to roast the poblano peppers in the broiler. I cut them in two so I didn't have to turn them around. When they were charred, I put them in a plastic bag to "sweat".

After the peppers are cooled down, peel and devein them.

Slice in "rajas".

Meanwhile, slice onion and garlic and sautee them in the oil until lightly browned but not caramelized.

Add the rajas that, because of the roasting, should be kinda cooked by now, sautee for about 2 minutes and add salt to taste.

Then add the small can of yellow corn. Sautee for another 2 minutes just to make the taste uniform.

That's it! Serve with a side of rice and refried beans. The corn tortilla is for making tacos.

Delicious!

Almost-vegan Thanksgiving dinner

2007-11-11T22:45:00.001-05:00

Dinner
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto

As loyal readers know, it's been discovered that the milk protein makes me really sick. So now I am on a restricted diet in which I can't have any milk products including butter, cream and cheese. Thanksgiving is a difficult time since almost everything involves a ton of butter. We decided I would cook Thanksgiving dinner for us. I made a delicious vegan carrot soup with a hint of ginger and curry.
This is one of the most delicious soups I ever made.
First I chopped onion and garlic and fried it in olive oil, then I added the carrots and potatoes.Then I added two cups of vegetable bouillon, salt and pepper, one teaspoon curry powder and half a cup of chopped fresh ginger. I let it boil for about 30 minutes and then I pureed it in the blender. It was so delicious.
I also made an applesauce cranberry Jello (that's the only non-vegan thing in the whole menu). I made my own applesauce, with no sugar added.
As a main dish I made baked butternut squash in cashew sauce. It was more difficult than I thought to chop the squash (it was really really difficult). It took about 45 minutes in the oven to be ready.

And as a side I made a "stuffing" with fried onions, garlic and celery and bread crumbs. I baked it for 20 minutes as a roast.
Our vegetarian almost vegan Thanksgiving menu was delicious, but it took so long to make that when I asked James what he was thankful for all he could come up with was "I am thankful that dinner is finally ready". Hah!

Sincronizadas

2007-11-11T22:35:00.001-05:00

Sincronizadas
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.

This is a delicious and easy Mexican breakfast. All you need for one person is two flour tortillas, cheese and ham.
Heat up the tortillas, add the cheese and the ham to one tortilla, cover with the other tortilla in a sandwich-like manner. Heat until the cheese is melted turning constantly to make sure the tortillas do not burn.

Cut in four triangular pieces. Enjoy your breakfast!

Blue Garlic?

2007-10-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

Recently I had an email about green garlic and posted asking my readers if they knew what it caused it and if it had happened to them (here is the link).

Here are some of the responses left in the comments:
I've had it happen when using a first pressed extra vigin olive oil. This oil was a very dark and rich green color so I just assumed it acted like a dye with the white of the garlic.
Julie
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I had that happen last week when I made a garlic/ginger/lime marinade for a pork roast. Didn't use any olive oil though...
sheena
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Garlic turns green or blue green when exposed to acids... it doesn't affect the flavor a bit, but you should consider it for cosmetic purposes when cooking.
beth
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I had my garlic turn greenish-blue when I cooked chicken with 40 cloves...
Vicki
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i was searching re this very thing! glad to see i'm not the only one concerned. making snapper that required roasting tomatoes and garlic in the oven. garlic was good when slicing. when i got it out of the oven, it was green like it was spoiled. i'm going to go enjoy my dinner now that i see it's caused by acids such as tomato juice!
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Now Nancy sent me the following email:

I pickled some kielbasa and the garlic I put in has turned blue. Do you think it is safe to eat or has something gone wrong?

We know from previous responses that garlic turns blueish green, so I would advise Nancy not to be concerned, if the shade of blue her garlic turn was a bit greenish.

Any opinions from Garlicster readers?

Morimoto

2007-09-23T12:58:00.000-04:00

I was really excited to receive my pre-release copy of Morimoto, published by DK, DK is one of my favourite publishers, their Eye Witness travel guides are just amazing. I was expecting beautiful pictures and I was not disappointed.
So who is Chef Morimoto and why should I get his book? Masaharu Morimoto is the regular iron chef Japanese in the Iron Chef and Iron Chef America shows. I always have fun watching these shows on the Food Network, and I was curious to see what a book by him could provide.
The book starts with a 2-3 page biography of Chef Morimoto and his career as a chef, this biography was written by JJ Goode (a long-time food writer). It is then divided in several chapters:

Sashimi and Sushi: Including a description of how to cut fish, clean octopus and clean clams
Rice, Noodles, Breads and Soups: With several recipes for rice dishes, including my beloved sticky rice in lotus leaves
Fish and shellfish: With recipes for lobster, crab, shrimp, etc.
Duck, Chicken, Pork, Beef and Lamb: This is the chapter that seems to be the most "fusion", since it includes a lot of recipes that seem French-ish, and stuff with hot fiery chiles
Vegetables, Tofu and Eggs: A chapter that I was especially interested in, because of its vegetarian content. It includes a recipe for tempura vegetables. Sadly, a lot of veggie and tofu recipes include some type of meat, or cheese
A special chapter called Recipes to Contemplate: Which includes an abalone croquette. Curiously, there is a typo on the title and it says "albalone" (page 211).
Desserts: There is a tofu cheesecake that looks delicious (my readers will have to try it for me and let me know what they think, since I cannot eat any cheese)
Stocks, Oils, Spices and Sauces: Recipes for different sauces and stocks that are needed for the various recipes in the book

There is not a lot about specific garlic content, there is a Grilled Steak with Garlic-Soy Jus that looks delicious, the garlic-soy jus includes 6 garlic cloves!, fresh ginger, sugar, veal reduction (recipe included in the book), soy sauce, mirin (fortified wine made from glutionous rice and used solely for cooking, according to the glossary), sesame oil and onion. The truth is that it looks delicious! There is a lamb carpaccio that includes "shiso buds" or garlic flowers as garnish, this is such an original way of garnishing that I'm looking forward to trying it. Garlic is included in some other recipes, but not very prominently. It doesn't matter, the recipes are so delicious this is a book worth having. The thing that I liked the most is that it has a kind of "guide" in each chapter describing how to use the ingredients, like how to cook the rice, what dashi is, how tofu is made, etc. All the explanations and most of the recipes are accompanied by step-by-step photos illustrating the process.

This is definitely a book worth getting for reference and as a cook book. The only "but" for me is the same as always, the price is $40 USD but it is $50 CAD. At today's conversion rate it should be about $42 CAD. A 25% markup is too much for us Canadians. I recommend ordering from an American bookstore, like Barnes & Noble, they give you a discount and even with the shipping it's well worth it. (Sorry Canadian retailers, it's not my fault, it's just common sense).
The amazing photography is by Quentin Bacon.

Biga Bread with Garlic

2007-08-07T18:05:00.000-04:00

Pacific College Mom sent us another delicious recipe:
This is an adaptation of a one originally appearing in Sunset magazine. It is my absolute favorite bread, chewy and hearty. It takes a little longer to make, but it’s definitely worth the effort!
¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
1 Cup cool tap water
1 teasp sugar or honey
¼ Cup Biga (recipe follows)
2 Tblsp milk
1 Tblsp finely chopped garlic (or rosemary)
¾ teasp regular salt (optional, I omit it)
3 – 3 1/4 Cups flour
½ teasp coarse salt

In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over water and sugar or honey, let yeast dissolve. Add biga, milk, garlic, regular salt, and 2 Cups of flour. Mix well, and then knead in ¾ Cup more flour to create slightly sticky dough. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours until doubled.

Punch down dough and knead briefly. On a floured board, shape dough into a smooth ball. Place on a well floured baking sheet. Cover with plastic and let rise again about an hour, or until springy when lightly touched.

At least 30 minutes before baking, place baking stone or a large baking sheet in the oven and heat oven to 400 degrees. With a sharp knife or razor slash top of dough, sprinkle cut with coarse salt. Mist the dough and walls of oven with spray bottle filled with water. Slide dough onto hot stone or baking pan, bake for about 35 minutes, or until bread is deep golden brown. Cool on rack.

Biga
¼ teasp yeast
½ Cup cool water
1 Cup flour

Sprinkle yeast over water, let dissolve. Add flour, mix well. Cover and chill 24 hours before using. Can be stored in the fridge up to 2 weeks. Makes 1 cup.

Chicken with Double Garlic Black Bean Sauce

2007-06-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

Pacific College Mom sent us this delicious recipe. It looks so delicious, I think I'm going to make it this weekend. After all, I'm going to St. Lawrence Market tomorrow to stock up for the long weekend.
Happy Canada Day, everyone!

1 Tablespoon Aji-Mirin (sweet rice wine)
4 Teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce, divided
5 Teaspoons cornstarch, divided
1 Teaspoon sesame oil
2 large chicken breast halves, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 Tablespoon Garlic Black Bean sauce
1 Teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 Clove minced garlic
½ Cup chicken broth
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 Pound fresh asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 Stalk celery, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 small onion, diced
3 Tablespoons water (I use water from the pasta)
4 servings (large handful) angel hair pasta

A.) Make a marinade of wine, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons cornstarch and the sesame oil. Add chicken pieces and toss well to coat. Chill for 30 minutes while preparing the veggies.

B.) Mix together black bean sauce with ginger, minced garlic, broth, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, oyster sauce, and remaining 3 teaspoons cornstarch, set aside.

C.) Prepare pasta in salted water, if desired.

D.) Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add chicken with marinade and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until the chicken is opaque, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan.

E.) Heat 1 tablespoon oil to wok and stir-fry veggies for about 2 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons water to the pan, cover, and cook for another minute.

F.) Return chicken to the wok, add sauce mixture, and cook until sauce thickens. Serve over the pasta.

And for our American readers, Happy Fourth of July too!

Roasted garlic and parsley potatoes

2007-05-21T16:50:00.000-04:00

Now that spring is here, the Farmers' Market on the North side of St. Lawrence Market is filling up with better and better delicious goodness. On Saturday I went and bought a lot of veggies. Among the things I bought were potatoes and garlic.
Since I was going to grill some other veggies, I decided to make my special roasted potatoes with garlic and parsley.

Ingredients:
One pint baby potatoes, halved
3 teaspoons olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
Sea salt
Parsley flakes

Prepare a "pocket" with foil and place the halved baby potatoes and the slivered/sliced garlic.
Spread it with the olive oil, sea salt and dehydrated parsley flakes.

Fold the "pocket" and bring it to the barbecue. Grill on high heat for about 20 minutes.
It's that easy. The potatoes were crunchy and garlicky and oily and delicious!

And remember dear Garlicster readers, eating local, is healthier and uses less fuel. Help your local farmers, it is always good to know the person who is growing your food.

I've been so busy

2007-05-15T12:19:00.000-04:00

I've been super busy lately and haven't had much time to post. Don't worry my dear Garlicster readers, I have not abandoned the blog.
So, I recently received Educating Peter by Lettie Teague. I like the subtitle in this book "How I taught a Famous Movie Critic the Difference Between Cabernet and Merlot or How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert".
I am excited about starting to read this book, because I am also a bit of a neophyte with respect to wine. OK, I'm not that bad, at least I know that there is red wine, white wine, rosé wine and sparkly wine. Oh, and let's not forget Portuguese green wine. I want to go for a Niagara winery tour soon, just for fun, but it wouldn't hurt to know what is going on.
So it may not have much to do with garlic, but it is quite interesting. I'll look up for garlic pairings, maybe we'll get some information on what wine to drink with delicious garlic, mmmh.
The book is published by Simon & Schuster and is $25 USD. The publication date was March 13, 2007 so it's quite recent.
So I'm going to start reading it and I'll give an update to my readers as soon as have some comments to make. Maybe I'll become an (almost) wine expert soon!

Kheema, by Vijay

2007-04-18T10:54:00.000-04:00

Published at Lorence's Kitchen
Ingredients:
½" peeled & finely chopped fresh ginger
6 cloves of garlic, minced (6 of 'em! oh yeah!)
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 pounds of ground meat (lamb or a decent beef, like sirloin)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon of salt
2 Tablespoons of garam masala (if you can't find it locally, order it from Penzey's)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
A few mustard seeds (I usually use about ½ teaspoon or so...)
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Optional veggies (that I don't think are optional at all)
1 cup of cut green beans
1 can of pigeon peas (gandules), drained. (I think it's about a 14.5 ounces can)
Cubed potatoes, ½"cubes (I use 3 regular sized russets, about 2 cups or so)

I usually don't have fresh ginger on hand, but I always have a tube of ginger paste in the fridge. Fortunately for me, my local grocery store carries it, so look around! It's probably hiding out there somewhere. Also useful for this dish is a small can of whole tomatoes (in tomato juice) instead of fresh - I keep a couple of cans in the cupboard at all times for just such an emergency... chop up the entire can and add the juice, too.

The directions:

Add the oil to a large (did I say large? I meant LARGE) skillet and sauté the onion until soft and transparent.
Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for another minute or so.
Add the ground meat and brown it for 10 minutes. Break it up so it is in fine pieces.
Add the spices, tomatoes, and "optional" veggies, stir it all around...Cook, covered, on low heat for about 40 minutes

The finished product:

I serve this with basmati rice that I flavor with a bit of cumin, cilantro and some whole garlic cloves. The cloves boil and steam to a tender softness that allows them to be spread on some bread...

Enjoy, and think good things for Vijay.
Lorence

Peanr and apple and spinach saute with garlic

2007-04-05T16:39:00.001-04:00

This recipe works out wonderfully for a vegetarian diet, to make it vegan, substitute the butter for margarine.
Ingredients:
Two apples,
two pears,
one head of garlic,
one packet of dry roasted peanuts,
the juice of one lemon,
one tablespoon of butter,
two packages of spinach.

Melt the butter and add the pressed garlic until lightly browned.

Add the chopped apples and saute until tender, then add the chopped pears and the peanuts and keep sauteing. Be careful because pears are softer than apples and you don't want them to get to be mushy.

Add the spinach and saute until wilted.

Finally sprinkle the juice of half a lemon.

Serve over cooked wild rice.

This is a lot like the "bowls" from Fresh on Bloor and on Spadina, but with the advantage that it is homemade. Very nutritious and delicious.

Green garlic

2007-03-28T15:43:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the lack of updating, I've been swamped.

Michael sent the following email:
The other night I made some garlic bread. Instead of using butter, I decided to drizzle olive oil on the baguette. I then crushed a few cloves of garlic and spread on the bread and then added a little bit of salt. I placed the bread in the toaster oven and twenty minutes later when I went to take a look at the garlic bread, I was shocked. The garlic turned green! This has never happened in all my years of cooking. The cloves looked good when I crushed it so I can't understand what could have happened. Have you ever heard of anything like this?

I'm pretty sure it was the olive oil that turned the garlic green. I have seen it turn onion green so yeah. I think that's what happened.

Any other opinions about the issue?

Garlic trivia

2007-03-09T13:13:00.000-05:00

A while ago (almost two years ago now, wow!), I asked how everyone keeps their garlic. I had an incident in which my garlic sprouted in my kitchen. A lot of people responded to my questions:

Roger said:
garlic should be stored in a paper bag.

eLisa wrote:
Well I don't really know about garlic in specific, but I do know about onions. You keep onions in a brown paper bag in the low humidity side of your crisper and they stay firm and do not sprout for a really long time. I use my onions within a month, so I don't know how much longer than that that they would keep. Perhaps garlic is similar? I just buy new garlic whenever mine gets soft or sprouts and never thought about trying to keep it in the frig cause I heard it was a no-no like you did. I am going to try the brown paper bag thing now that you've got me thinking about it!

Arthur:
If your garlic sprouted that quickly, then it was ready to sprout. I worked in the Caribbean and bought garlic by the case. Sometimes it would all sprout in a couple of weeks, other times I could keep it for months. The only advice that I can give you is to buy high quality bulbs, keep them cool and in the dark, and don't use any sprouts. I'm sure that a garlic farmer could give you much better advice.

Patrick sent this email:
I have tried various ways of keeping garlic and I still feel the best way is to store it in the fridge where it stays dark and cool. I keep it in one of the veg. draws with my onions(which I keep in a plastic bag) and this seems to keep the garlic fresh and it lasts the longest. Like you I have kept my garlic stored in the dark , but in a a cabinet and it too, started to blossum. I think the cool temp. is what helps keep it fresh the longest. Hope we hear about other ideas!

Fritz said:
I have seen small ceramic crocks that were sold as storage for garlic, claiming to keep it fresh longer. When I buy garlic it is alot like buying bananas. The state that the garlic is in at the time of purchase will tell me alot about how long it has till it is compromised. I try to find it in the best posssible state and then use it up as soon as possible.

Annie left this comment:
I keep fresh garlic flavorful by peeling the buds clean, then packing the cloves tightly in a small jar, then cover with olive oil...they stay firm. I keep them in the fridge, although have been meaning to try storing it in the pantry to see just how long it will keep.

Simple suggested:
I keep my garlic in a ceramic crock on the kitchen counter so it's always nearby. I can purchase 4-5 head and still come to the end of 3 weeks without it being compromised. Garlic needs to be in a dry, dark environment for best storage, but you should carefully choose only the best at the store to prolong your garlic's "shelf life."

Eric also said:
Not unlike the other garlic aficionados, we keep our garlic in a little ceramic crock with dime-sized holes all over its circumference. Whenever we maked chili, spaghetti or any other dish that we feel could use some, it's right there.

Last week, Dan raised the question again:

As my wife and I were cooking Saturday night, I mentioned that I didn't think it was necessary to put garlic in the refrigerator. She thought I was probably right, but that she'd always kept it there "just because". I thought you might have some insight either way.
BTW - I'm glad you don't think Brian is old at 45. I'll be 43 in a couple of weeks, and I'm starting to feel the mileage on the odometer.

After my consultations, I think the most popular method is to keep the garlic in a sort of "cookie jar" ceramic container, screw the cap tightly and not let any light see the garlic.
I still keep it in the fridge, but I have to say that it softens a bit, I'm pretty sure that is not how it is supposed to be.

Does anyone have any more suggestions?

Garlic and tomato paste

2007-02-26T11:22:00.000-05:00

Brian writes:
"I eat two cloves of Garlic a day and one can of Tomatoe Paste every day and feel fantstic at 45 years old! Brian"
Sounds like good advice. Garlic is delicious and I looooooove tomatoes. Love them, love them, love them. Then again, Brian, you're not that old at 45!

Garlic for Valentine's Day

2007-02-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

It is romantic, and it has garlic. Make sure that both you and your partner eat lots of it. Both romantic and smelly!
Recipe shamelessly stolen from Suite 101

Baked Oysters With Garlic

12 fresh oysters, shucked and rinsed well
3 tablespoons butter + 1 teaspoon for greasing casserole dish
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry unseasoned breadcrumbs
1-2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Butter a small casserole dish, or for individual servings use ramekin dishes. Set aside.
In a small skillet, melt the butter. Add garlic and breadcrumbs and saute over medium heat until mixture is golden and slightly crumbly. Remove from heat and stir in the parsley. Spoon mixture over oysters and sprinkle with parmesan.
Bake oysters in the preheated oven until bubbly and lightly browned - about 15 minutes. Serve warm.
Makes 2 servings, 6 oysters each.

Puttanesca Sauce

2007-01-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

I received the following email from Javier:

I have tasted a Puttanesca spaghetti at a restaurant that has become my favorite. The sauce has a very strong garlic flavor in it.
I have prepared different dishes with "AMORE" garlic paste, and like it a lot, I consider that it imparts a different garlic flavor to foods than minced garlic, and both complement each other very well.
But returning to that puttanesca sauce, this time I purchased one litter of the product, which was given to me still hot. When I opened the container, I could find one chunck of tomato that tasted very strongly to garlic. I'm sure it's some kind of garlic marinating that is done to the tomatoes, perhaps for several weeks before preparing the sauce. It was the tomatoes that had the strong garlic flavor which I'm looking for, and not the rest of the liquids in the sauce.
Perhaps you have an idea as to how to marinate the tomatoes.
Javier

I know that if you fry garlic in olive oil, being really careful not to burn them, you get garlic flavoured olive oil that is great to use as seafood salad dressing. I wonder if maybe sauteeing the tomatoes in olive oil and lots of garlic would make a difference.
Does anyone have any suggestions??

Green beans with garlic and green onions

2007-01-15T21:08:00.001-05:00

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of green beans cooked,
3 bunches of green onions
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup vegetable buillon (I used Knorr)

Chop the green onions and garlic, place them in a pot and pour the vegetable buillon over them. Boil for about 5 minutes. Incorporate the cooked green beans and boil until almost all of the liquid had been reduced.

Serve with rice.

Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale, Garlic and Sausage

2007-01-11T13:08:00.000-05:00

This recipe was sent by Lorence, I shamefully stole all his pictures. You can see the original on this link. Also he's got lots of recipes on his website, be sure not to miss it!

This is another of our cool weather favourites. The textures, aromas and tastes in this dish all combine to create a refreshing melange that's warming and incredibly flavourful. And it was a great way to use kale, which around here, is usually inexpensive and plentiful. I saw this recipe in Redbook Magazine's February 2000 issue. I didn't really notice the recipe at first & it wasn't really the kind of recipe I would normally have paid much attention to, but the photo...Oh the photo looked delicious. I saw that picture and I wanted a bowl of whatever it was! A few weeks later, I made the recipe and we've been hooked since. I wish I still had the original magazine so I could post that photo, but all I have left is a photocopy. I'll try to take a shot next time I make it (probably in a couple of weeks).

The remarkable thing with this recipe is that I don't change a thing (Well, ok, sometimes I use a bit more smoked sausage...). The recipe calls for 3 cloves of garlic. Finally! Why, oh, why would a recipe call for only 1 clove of garlic?!? What good is that? I love garlic, so I use a lot of it, and this recipe calls it right - 3 cloves. 3 LARGE cloves. Yum.

Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale, Garlic and Sausage
Ingredients;
8 ounces of Kielbasa, thinly sliced
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 19 ounce cans of Cannelini beans, rinsed & drained
(great northern work, too, if that's all you can find)
2 14.5 ounce cans of chicken broth
4 cups of chopped kale

Directions:
1. Brown the sausage in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. I brown it until the bottom of the pan starts to turn brown with the cooked fat.

2. Remove the sausage from the pan to a bowl.
3. Add the oil to the pan and add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about 30 seconds. Don't let it brown! (it will turn bitter if it browns!)

4. Add some broth to the pan to deglaze it, scraping up as much of the browned bottom of the pan as possible, adding more broth as needed. Then add the rest of the broth.

5. Bring the broth to a boil.
6. Add the beans & reduce the heat to bring the beans and broth to a simmer.

7. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
8. Remove 1 cup of soup, including some beans, to a blender and puree the mixture until smooth.

9. Stir the puree back into the soup.

10. Add the sausage back into the soup.
11. Add the kale to the soup and simmer util the kale is just tender, then serve.

This makes 6 1/2 cups, and goes great with a nice crusty bread.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Chicken Breasts with Tomato Butter

2007-01-04T12:42:00.000-05:00

This recipe was posted on Lorence's Kitchen (link to the recipe). Take a look at his blog, he has some delicious recipes, not all featuring garlic but they are just so good!

(The picture was also shamefully stolen from his blog)
I knew I was going to have to make something quick last night since we were heading to my son's school Christmas show, so I dug this recipe out a couple of nights ago for the small bit of night-before prep it requires. That prep is simply making a sweetly pungent tomato butter that tops a simple sauteed chicken breast. The dish itself was a fast cook, since all that's done is just pan sauteeing the chicken until done. The seasoned flour on the chicken makes for a nice thin yet crispy crust. The R.O.I. on that little prep was huge!
Chicken Breasts with Tomato Butter

The Ingredients
4 Table spoons of butter at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon of finely minced garlic1 teaspoon of tomato paste1 teaspoon of chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup of flourSalt and pepper
4 boneless, skinless thicken breasts(try not to get the monstrously large., hormone laden type - they're too thick to be pan sautéed.
2 Tablespoons of olive oil

The Directions:
Combine 3 Tablespoons of the butter with the garlic, tomato paste and parsley.
Scrape the mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and use the wrap to help form the butter into a cylinder. Wrap the cylinder tightly and chill.
Combine flour, ½ tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper.Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture.
In a large frying pan, melt remaining 1 Tablespoon of butter in the olive oil over medium-high heat.Add the chicken and reduce the heat to medium.
Cook, turning once, until chicken is just done, about 10 minutes.Serve immediately, topping the hot chicken with slices of the butter.

Some variations to explore:
For the butter:
Use Shallots instead of garlic
Use sun-dried tomoato instead of tomato paste
Add chopped black olives to the butter
Substitute fresh basil for the parsley

For the chicken: (don't do too much here...the chicken should be kept simple)
Add some cayenne tot he dredging flour for a bit of extra kick
Try Penzey's Shallot Salt in the dredging flour instead of your usual salt

This recipe came from "First for Women" magazine, sometime in the early-mid1990's. I have several recipes from this magazine but I can't find a single one online. I'll post a few more as I make them.
Enjoy!

Lorence

Hungarian Chicken Paprikash with Pierogi

2006-12-29T13:05:00.000-05:00

Christine says:
You have to try this recipe. It is absolutely delicious!

4 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in bite sized pieces
2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions diced fine
2 Tablespoons garlic minced
1/4 cup sweet hungarian paprika
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 - 12oz can of chicken stock
1 16 oz container of sour cream
3 Tablespoons of flour mixed with 1/4 cup of ice cold water to make paste

Saute minced onions in evoo until golden (do not burn) , add chicken breasts and brown. Add all seasonings and chicken stock except sour cream and flour mixture. Cover and simmer for 1 hour on low heat. Add sour cream, bring back to boil. Wisk flour mixture until smooth and add to pan, continue to wisk until mixture is completely mixed and will thicken. Immediately remove from heat and put in serving bowl.

Make frozen pierogi(I baked mine in the oven with a little of butter).

Put chicken mixture over pierogi and enjoy!

Apple-garlic pizza

2006-12-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

We prepared this pizza on the weekend:
The ingredients are (sorry I don't have specific quantities, we just improvised the amounts):
Granny Smith apples
One bulb of garlic
Margarine
Tomato paste
Grated cheddar cheese
Dried rosemary
Pizza dough (homemade or Pillsbury)

Chop the apples

Chop the garlic

Fry the garlic and the apple in margarine

Have the pizza dough ready. We used homemade, but I don't know how it was made, you can also use Pillsbury, it's really good (you can also show your tattoo while doing that, hee hee).

Spread the tomato paste on the pizza dough, arrange the apple+garlic mixture and add some shredded cheddar cheese. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and rosemary.

Bake until the cheese is melted. Enjoy this delicious pizza.

Roasted Creamy Alfredo Sauce

2006-12-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

FC OZ sent the following recipe:

3 whole bulbs of garlic
1/2 lb. cooked boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2” dice
3/4 cup of corn kernels
1 can ( 4 oz.) chopped green chilis (for more heat, use chopped canned jalapenos!)
1 green bell pepper, seeded, and cut into 1/2” dice
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2” dice
2 cups of diced corn tortillas(1/2” dice)
1/2 cup shredded reduced fat Mexican four cheese(available in local markets)
1 jar (16.4 oz.) Creamy Alfredo Sauce

Remove the outer layers of the garlic bulbs and cut off the stems. Brush with oil, wrap in tin foil, and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove the garlic from the foil and squeeze out the roasted garlic from the cut end of the bulbs. With the flat part of a knife spread the roasted garlic into a paste. Heat the Creamy Alfredo Sauce to a low simmer and whisk in the garlic paste. Place the sauce and all of the other ingredients other than the cheese into a two quart baking dish (8”X8”X2”), mix the ingredients in the dish thoroughly. Top with the cheese. Place the baking dish in a 350 degree preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest five minutes.

I guess you can figure out what to do from here.

Chicken Parm Soup

2006-12-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

Recipe sent by Christine Goldstein

I saw a variation of this recipe on Rachael Ray. I added some more spices to make it taste more like my parm. Was a BIG HIT!

1 bag frozen ice glazed chicken tenders
(chop them into bite sized pieces before cooking)
1 lg onion
2 Tablespoons garlic
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons italian seasoning
1 box of chicken broth
1 can of crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

sliced garlic bread
mozzerella cheese

slice onions in small slices. Brown onions in olive oil until carmelized. Add chicken. Brown in pan until cooked completely. Add seasonings, broth, tomatoes. Cook on low heat min of 15 minutes. (I simmered for a couple of hours)

Place slice of garlic bread in bottom of bowl. Scoop soup on top of bread, place mozzerella on top of soup to melt.

Enjoy!

EDIT:
After a few questions, here is what Christine replied:
One 28 oz can of crushed tomatos, use about 4 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces. 4 cups of chicken stock.

Huitlacoche enchiladas

2006-11-29T11:38:00.000-05:00

This recipe does not have a lot of garlic, but I thought it was interesting to post.

Huitlacoche, or corn smut is the mushroom (fungus) that grows on corn (or maize). Some people think it's gross because it's black, but it's really delicious. It tastes like a combination of mushroom and corn. Here is the whole Wikipedia article on corn smut (link).
There are two steps in making the enchiladas. The first is the huitlacoche filling.
Go to Kensington Market and get a can of huitlacoche at Perola's.
You will also need onion, garlic, serrano chiles, corn oil and salt. The challenge here is actually figuring out the amounts, since I just chopped the ingredients and made the filling without measuring. I used about 3/4 of an onion, 4 cloves of garlic and 3 chiles.

Place the onion, garlic and serrano chiles in the food processor and chop.

Saute the onion+garlic+chile combination with a pinch of salt on medium heat and about 2 teaspoons of oil.

When the onion is brown, add the contents of the can of huitlacoche and saute for about 10 minutes at reduced heat. The huitlacoche is black, do not be turned off by that.
Do not add more salt since the canned huitlacoche is usually already salted.

Set aside and proceed to make the sauce.

The ingredients for the green sauce are:
Tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro, serrano chile and the "secret" ingredient, a teaspoon of Knorr vegetable broth. Again I don't have specific amounts, I just calculated according to what I had.

Chop all the ingredients in the food processor until smooth. This is a really good green salsa and you can keep some of it for later use on quesadillas or tacos.

For the enchiladas you need to cook the salsa, I used about 2 teaspoons of corn oil and cooked it in a pot simmering for about 12 minutes.

To make enchiladas, the tortillas have to be fried. I calculated 3 enchiladas per person, so I fried 6 tortillas. This has to be done at the last minute because you don't want the tortillas to be cold and soggy when your guests eat.

To serve the enchiladas, just after frying the tortilla, fill each one with some hot huitlacoche filling, fold them and cover them in sauce. Serve with sour cream on top. I also served a side of sliced avocado.

Here's a link to my previous enchilada recipe, another vegetarian meal that I prepared back in May, corn enchiladas.

2006-11-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, I've been SUPER busy. Here's a link for Thanksgiving Turkey with 140 cloves of garlic.
What? 140 cloves of garlic?
Yeah, delicious!

http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/chapters/barker_recipes.html

Rice with Veggies

2006-11-07T21:01:00.000-05:00

This is garlic-intensive, and has one of my favourite ingredients: chick peas!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Chopped onion
1 cup rice
8 large garlic cloves, slivered
1 cup canned chick peas, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
1 Cup frozen green beans, thawed
1 Cup butternut squash
1 Cup broccoli florets
1 Cup canned and drained corn kernels
2 Teaspoons soy sauce

Directions:
1. Heat oil in large skillet. Add onion and saute until golden.
2. Add garlic and fry it being careful not to burn it or it will turn bitter.
3. Add rice saute 1 minute.
4. Add 2 cups water and chicken bouillon; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover tightly and cook until rice is tender and almost all liquid is absorbed, about 35
minutes.
5. Uncover skillet and place green beans, chick peas, squash, broccoli and corn evenly over surface of rice. Cover and cook until vegetables are
crisp-tender, about 10 minutes.
6. Remove from heat. Mix in soy sauce. Toss.
7. Enjoy!

The Garlic Rose Bistro

2006-11-02T13:28:00.001-05:00

Looking around for garlic recipes I ran into this restaurant
The Garlic Rose Bistro in New Jersey
As Garlicster readers know, I have been to Garlics in London Ontario and I sent my parents and sister to go to The Stinking Rose in California.
Has anyone visited The Garlic Rose Bistro? I am seriously thinking of scheduling a trip to New Jersey to visit this restaurant, the menu looks delicious:
Three Onion and Garlic Soup
West Coast Garlic Chowder
Garlic Rose Pork Chop
Garlic Rose Crab Cakes
And other really really delicious things.

Tonight's dinner, by Mister Anchovy

2006-10-21T13:23:00.000-04:00

Brown some short ribs of beef in a dutch oven on the stovetop, gently, using olive oil.
Add:
A carrot or two coarsely chopped
A celery stalk cut the same way
A few old mushrooms I found in the fridge
4 whole garlic cloves
1 very good beer
A few cherry tomatoes tuffy p found in the fridge
A few shakes of worcestershire sauce.
A few shakes of good hot sauce

Preheat the oven to 300f.
Put the lid on the dutch oven and put it in the oven.
Go practice the accordion, make a painting, watch TV, read a book.....for 3 hours.

Feel the love.

cheers,
mister anchovy

Spaghetti with garlic cream sauce

2006-10-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

I love a good pasta and of course I love garlic. This time I wasn't in the mood for a tomato based sauce, so I decided to make a cream based sauce.
Ingredients
1 sticks butter
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 pint heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound spaghetti cooked al dente
Parmesan cheese (my parmesan cheese was so delicious, I went to the St. Lawrence Market and bought it from Alex Cheese, they grated it for me and it just tastes so good)

Melt butter over medium-low heat. Add garlic but be careful not to brown it. When garlic is cooked stir in heavy cream.
When it is boiling, reduce heat and let sauce barely simmer for about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve over hot cooked spaghetti and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Mmmh, delicious!

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

2006-09-21T14:48:00.000-04:00

JadeMarie sent the recipe for this delicious chicken.
1 large chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup vinegar
1/4 cup Sprite or 7-Up soda
2 to 3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon pepper (regular black or cayenne)

Place chicken in crockpot. Mix all remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Serve over rice or noodles. You can thicken the juices after cooking with a little cornstarch. http://www.e-cookbooks.net/recipes1/09232.htm

I bet some rice or ramen noodles would be good on the side, along with some stir-fried vegetables.

The website that I found is Garlic Valley Farms Garlic Juices: http://www.garlicvalleyfarms.com/

They have recipes and a ton of interesting links on their website.

Garlic is just garlic, right?

2006-09-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

The following photos were taken by Sam Breach (the website is amazing, full of delicious recipes and great pictures). He she wrote a great and interesting post about garlic that I am reproducing here. The original post can be found here (link)

Garlic is Just Garlic, Right?

Wrong!

Have you ever stopped to think about the garlic you buy? Like tomatoes, like peaches and like potatoes, there are many different varieties of this pungent vegetable too.

Some are mild and some are stronger. Some bulbs have two rings of small cloves, whilst others just have one ring of larger, fatter cloves. Here, from left to right, we have:
1) The Lorz italian, a pre 1900 heirloom.
2) An Inchelium red garlic from an Indian Reservation in East Washington.
3) The "Red Toch" from Tochliavri in Georgia.

I bought these three garlics from the Small Potatoes/Juicy Garlic stand at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market last Saturday. I was at the market early, before it was too crowded and was able to have a little chat with the farmer, Wallace Condon, about his garlics. He explained to me that he supports Seed Savers, a non-profit organisation who save and share heirloom seed. Seed Savers have several different varieties of garlic available. Condon explained to me that most commercial garlics are what are called "softnecks" but that "stiffnecks" are more interesting with a better flavour. Unfortunately the stiffneck yield is low which is why they are less common. All of the garlics Condon has for sale are the softneck type.

Since I had three stale ears of pain epi from Acme left over from the weekend, I decided that Fred and I should conduct a garlic bread tasting test with the three different varieties of bulb. Here are the results:

Lorz:
Smell: Mild
Garlic Bread: Hot patches on the tongue, moderate level of pungency.
Raw: Very strong, very hot. A long, long hotness and after-taste.

Inchelium:
Smell: Very mild and green.
Garlic Bread: Mild taste but with aftertaste. Slight fishiness in the flavour.
Raw: Hints of green, hot but short burn and long-lasting pungency.

Red Toch:
Smell: Extremely mild, barely detectable garlic smell.
Garlic Bread: Almost transparent as far as garlic goes, no bite, slightly sweet.
Raw: Slightly hot when tasted raw with a longer-lasting burn.

It has been an interesting excercise to compare and contrast these garlics and have the opportunity to judge which dish would benefit from which garlic. Often we don't have a choice or this kind of information at our fingertips when making our garlic purchases. Condon, of Small Potatoes, told me that he probably had only about two weeks worth of garlic left for sale at the market. So... you'll have to get in there quick if you want to taste the differences for yourself.

Toasted Garlic and Five Onion Soup

2006-09-11T13:11:00.000-04:00

Toasted Garlic and Five Onion Soup
Originally uploaded by Shasta MacNasty.

This recipe and picture were taken from Shasta MacNasty's Flickr page. Here is a link to her website, she has lots of garlic stuff there too. Delicious!

1 slice bacon, diced small
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 leek, sliced
4 scallions, sliced
1 shallot, sliced
1/2 white onion, sliced
1/2 vidaliia onion, sliced
1 head garlic, sliced
8 sprigs thyme, minced
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock
1 small backing potato, peeled, and diced small
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and black pepper

1. Place a 3 quart chefs pan over medium heat and add diced bacon. Cook until crisp and then remove bacon bits.

2. Add the olive oil, leeks, scallions, shallots, white and vidalia onions, and garlic.

3. Allow the onions and garlic to caramelize, about 15 minute. Stir in the thyme and bay leaf.

4. Deglaze the pan with white wine. Be sure to scrape the fond off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.

5. Pour in the chicken stock and bring the soup to a boil. Add the diced potatoes.

6. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes and onions are tender.

7. Puree the soup with a hand held emersion blender.

8. Stir in the cream and adjust the seasoning with salt and black pepper.

9. Garnish with bacon bits and serve hot.

Serves 4

Roasted garlic and tomato pizza

2006-09-08T09:38:00.000-04:00

I looooove grape tomatoes. I just like them because they are tiny, and you can eat them in a mouthful or chop them and they are so cute.
I made up this roasted garlic and tomato pizza using Pillsbury's pre-made pizza dough (so convenient!).
Ingredients:
1 whole head garlic
2 spoonfuls olive oil
salt
1 package Pillsbury pizza dough
1 pint grape tomatoes sliced tiny
Half a package Kraft pizza cheese combination (or as much cheese as you want)
Fresh basil leaves

Instructions:
Roast the head of garlic by slicing off the top and sprinkling it with olive oil and some salt wrapped in foil, put it in the oven for about 50 minutes at 400 degrees F.
Roll out pizza dough in a baking sheet according to instructions, squeeze the roasted garlic (be careful that it cools a little bit, you don't want to burn your hands), brush with some olive oil and sprinkle the tomatoes, basil leaves and cheese. Bake in the oven at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Delicious and garlicky!

Garlic Meatloaf

2006-09-06T13:10:00.000-04:00

I was in the mood for good old-fashioned meatloaf and I wanted it really garlicky.
I am re-posting this recipe from June 2005.

3lbs. ground beef
2 1/2 lg. cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 lg. red onion, chopped
1 1/2 c. bread crumbs (Torn hamb. or hot dog bunns work better than reg. bread)
2 eggs
1/4 c. colby cheese
4oz. crushed tomatoes
1pkg. store brand meatloaf mix

Heat oven to 400 deg.
Mix all ing. well with hands, and form into a loaf
Flatten into appropriatly sized baking dish (I use glass)
Cook 1 hr. without opening oven door
After 1 hr. lightly cover top with katsup
An additional 30 min. it should be cooked through and have a nice brown crust
Cool 15 min. and serve

Fideo with chipotle and garlic

2006-08-29T09:41:00.000-04:00

From Wikipedia:

Fideo is the Spanish word for a noodle of any type. In Mexico, its name refers to a type of pasta similar to spaghetti. It is also known as vermicelli.
It is commonly used in making a soup dish. Even though there are a wide variety of recipes for it, the basic recipe calls for lightly browning the fideo in oil. Then adding in a base of chicken or beef broth, with pureed tomato, chilis, garlic, and onion. Different recipes may add cilantro, beef, chicken, corn or other ingredients. The mixture is then boiled until the fideos and ingredients are cooked. When served in can be garnished with lime or lemon juice, chilie or hot sauce or white mexican cheese.

To make fideo with chipotle and garlic you need:
One can of Herdez chipotle
Three cloves of garlic
Two tomatoes
One package of "capelvenere" pasta, or vermicelli in nests (not the straight one)
Two tablespoons of Knorr vegetable (or chicken or beef) bouillon
Two cups of water
Mazola corn oil

The first step is to combine the can of chipotles, the two tomatoes, three cloves of garlic, two cups of water and two tablespoons of Knorr vegetable bouillon in the blender. Blend until liquified.

In large pan heat up two to three teaspoons of oil, when it's hot, fry the vermicelli nests until brown.

When vermicelli is brown, pour the sauce from the blender. It will be quite liquid. Stir if needed, but really carefully. Lower heat and simmer covered until water liquid is consumed.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream. Mmmh, nice, spicy and garlicky!

Garlic Spinach

2006-08-22T13:12:00.000-04:00

Mr. Anchovy sent the following recipe:

Heat up a tablespoon or two of your best olive oil.

Toss in a handful of chopped up fresh garlic.

Stir it around for a minute, but don't let it brown.

Toss in lots of young spinach.

Saute briefly.

Add kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

For a variation, use some hot sauce too!

Easy, delicious and nutritious!

The Stinking Rose Restaurant in Los Angeles

2006-08-12T19:01:00.000-04:00

I got the whole idea for this blog from this restaurant I saw in Los Angeles a few years ago, The Stinking Rose. I never went to the restaurant but I always wondered about it.
Last week my parents and sister and brother-in-law went to LA and I told them that they had to go to The Stinking Rose and take pictures and eat the delicious garlic dishes.

Here is a picture of the menu:

Everyone shared the garlic cloves with anchovies as an appetizer.

A delicious extra garlicky olive oil:

My brother-in-law had garlic mussels

My mother had the garlic bouillabaise (with lots of seafood).

My sister had the prime rib with garlic.

And the dessert menu, they even have garlic ice cream with caramel mole sauce (if you look at the restaurant's picture page you can see a picture of the ice cream).

Everyone enjoyed the restaurant, but my mother said it was too much garlic. WHAAAAT? Well, it is a garlic restaurant, after all. I guess she's faint of mouth.

Corn Chowder

2006-08-07T18:05:00.000-04:00

Sent by Mister Anchovy.
Bbq several cobs of corn in the husk on a charcoal fire...don't even think about using a gas grill.
Saute chopped up onions, shallots and a few cloves of garlic until the onion starts caramelizing.
Add a chopped up yam and a chopped up potato.
Cut the corn of the cob and toss it in the pot.
Add some stock, homemade if possible.
Add some worcestershire sauce, a few splashes.
Add salt and pepper.
Add a bay leaf
Cook until the potato and the yam are done.
Take the bay leaf out.
Puree roughly. Shut off the heat.
Add a scoop of soup to a quarter cup of cream, then add this mixture back into the soup.
Stir.
Feel the love.

The most amazing gazpacho

2006-07-27T10:47:00.000-04:00

I just made the most amazing gazpacho. It all started this morning when James and I made plans for dinner. Originally I thought we should eat mango salad or something, but later I thought I should make my authentic gazpacho, it is great for a hot day like today and it's all vegetarian. I went to Kensington Market and got all the ingredients. James was in charge of peeling the garlic, he peeled 6 cloves and I just used the whole thing. OMG, it was so garlicky! I looooved it.

While I was at Kensington Market, I remembered that the other day James asked me if I had eaten cactus (nopales), of course I have (hey, they're on the Mexican national seal), and I even told him that in Mexico people eat the fruit of the cactus (tuna, in Spanish). It's called prickly pear or cactus fig. Well, I found that they sold red prickly pears at the fruit stand on the corner of Augusta and Nassau. I have to confess I had never seen red prickly pears, but they seemed to be really similar to the green ones, so I bought two. They were really good and James really enjoyed them. It's nice to show him some of the (vegetarian) things people eat in Mexico. I told him that next time I'm going to cook chayotes for him! (He has seen them but has never eaten them. As soon as I find them in Chinatown I'm going to buy them and cook them, mmmmh!!)

VH Sauce help

2006-07-21T11:48:00.000-04:00

Peter sent this email:
I'm hoping that since you posted asking for people to send you recipes, you might have come across a recipe that would replicate V-H Garlic Sauce.
I'm from Montreal, but have been living in the US for almost 2 years. No matter where I look, I can find NOTHING that comes even close to VH.
It's not imported here, and V-H doesn't seem interested in expanding into the US market ( I offered to sell it for them here )
Anyways, aside from using it for wings, I've always used it mostly for Chicken Fried Rice ( V-H Strong Garlic Sauce ).

OK, I asked around and Joyce got me this:

1. Heat some oil and add some ground up/minced garlic.
2. Salt to taste (for a more asian flavour you can use
oyster sauce or soy sauce instead of the salt).
3. Add honey.
4. Stir it all up and you are done.

Hope this helps!

Going camping? Eat garlic!

2006-07-16T00:03:00.000-04:00

Mosquitoes and blackflies are one of the things that make me have second thoughts about going camping.
I found the following information on Algonquin Park's website.

In Algonquin, blackflies are usually out by mid-May (depending on the weather in any given year) and are usually around until late June. The worst time of day for blackflies tends to be the last 2 or 3 hours of sunlight.
Mosquitoes are also abundant, beginning in mid to late-May and usually last longer than blackflies (into July). Mosquitoes are most often a problem in cooler, shady parts of the forest, as well as in the evening, and into the first couple of hours of darkness. They usually become less of a problem through the night (although they do not disappear entirely).

How to Prepare Yourself
...
Eat lots of garlic for at least a week before you come — use it in every meal. Your friends may stay away from you but so will the blackflies! Evidence exists that something in garlic acts as a repellent.

So, it helps to be a garlic freak if you want to go camping. It will help you keep away blackflies and very probably mosquitoes too!

Fleica

2006-07-05T13:07:00.000-04:00

JadeMarie sent the following email:
OMG! This is sooo goood :)
I used rib steaks because that's my favourite kind of steak.
I served it with a mixed green salad that had sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers and red onions. The dressing was that Lemon Dressing that you published in November 2005.

Recipe: Grilled Steak With Garlic (Fleica)

Time: About 30 minutes

3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 2- to 3-pound flank steak, or 4 strip steaks or rib-eye steaks, or an equivalent amount of skirt steak
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves, optional.

1. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic with lemon juice and salt to make a paste. Or mince garlic, and stir it with the salt into lemon juice, using the back of a wooden spoon to smash garlic as much as you can.

2. Press pepper into steak, then spread garlic mixture evenly on both sides. Let steak sit while you heat grill or broiler.

3. Build a moderately hot fire in the grill, or heat the broiler, and place the rack about 4 inches from heat source.

4. Brush a little melted butter onto steaks, then place on grill. Brush once or twice more with remaining butter while steaks cook, about 4 minutes per side for medium rare. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Bread

2006-06-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

Jade Marie sent the link to this recipe:

The roasted garlic adds a wonderful flavor to this bread. We had a family get together and my brother in-law cooked up a beautiful salmon for dinner. I thought this Sun-dried Tomato bread would be a great accompaniment with the salmon and it was. The whole family loved the bread. My father called the next day and said he toasted the bread for breakfast and that it was the best toast he had ever had. Give this recipe a try! You would be disappointed. (Link)

Roast Chicken with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2006-06-15T12:11:00.000-04:00

Jade Marie sent this recipe from www.FoodFit.com:
This recipe serves: 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients
For the chicken:
1 whole chicken, 6 to 8 pounds
salt and pepper
1 sprig fresh rosemary, or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 medium onion, roughly chopped into 1" pieces
2 carrots, roughly chopped into 1" pieces
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped into 1" pieces
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 lemon

For the garlic mashed potatoes:
1 bulb garlic, unpeeled
splash of olive oil
5 large potatoes (Idaho or russet)
1 1/3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions
For the chicken:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Rinse the chicken with cold water, pat dry and season with salt and pepper inside and out.
3. Stuff the cavity with the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and peeled garlic. Also put a few pieces of onion, carrot and celery into the cavity.
4. Scatter the rest of the onions, carrots and celery on the bottom of a roasting pan. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables. Squeeze juice from the lemon all over the chicken and add the lemon half to the cavity.
5. Place in the oven. After 15 minutes turn the heat down to 350°F. Roast the chicken for an additional 45 minutes to 1 hour, until its golden brown and crisp and the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a sharp knife.
6. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and let rest for about 10 minutes. Remove the skin and discard. Carve the chicken into serving pieces.

"The key to a perfectly garlic-infused mashed potatoes is to first lightly heat the garlic bulb, drizzled with olive oil, in the oven for no more than 15-20 minutes. Once the bulb takes on a golden brown coloration and softened texture, you'll know that the flavor of the roasted garlic within its cloves has reached perfection..."

For the garlic mashed potatoes:
1. Meanwhile, place the garlic bulb in an ovenproof dish and drizzle with olive oil. Once the oven has been turned down to 350°F, place the dish, uncovered, in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the garlic is golden brown and soft.
2. Remove from the oven and let cool.
3. Peel the potatoes and cut them in half. Place them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. Drain.
4. Bring the stock to a boil, and turn down to a simmer.
5. Squeeze the roasted garlic bulb to release the roasted garlic in each clove. Mash the garlic with a fork and throw the skins away.
6. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or fork, or use a food mill. Add the roasted garlic. Slowly add the stock until the desired consistency is reached.
7. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste and serve alongside the chicken.

This recipe is also dedicated to Clara, since garlic mashed potatoes are her all time favourite!

Famous...for eating. who's really that surprised?

2006-06-11T16:27:00.000-04:00

This post taken from Clara's Victory Dance:

Jeremy’s just shared some exciting news! We are pizza trendsetters. If you go to the Pizzaville on Yonge just north of Wellesley (Toronto, Canada) you can get a new kind of slice. Provolone, pepperoni and gourmet garlic. It’s a heretofore unavailable concoction created by Jeremy and I. We get it so often that the last time we ordered it they made two, and sold the second in slices. They went like hotcakes! Or something else that would probably sell better than hotcakes these days. I want to get them to call it the ‘claremy’ so go in there and ask for it by name. The village is soon to have the worst breath in all of downtown! I mean this thing is LOADED with garlic. I firmly believe that that’s why I haven’t gotten a cold n forever though. Healthy and stinky. That can be the slogan for the claremy. It’s delicious seriously go get some. Pizza. Pervs.

Garlic fiddleheads

2006-06-06T11:19:00.000-04:00

Kelly posted this recipe on her blog:
I’ve been staring at these wee, strange, expensive (they’re $7.99/lb) veggies for a couple of weeks now, wondering how on earth you were supposed to cook them, and what they tasted like. Knowing that you can only get them for a few weeks each spring, I realized that if I wanted to find out this year, I’d better get cracking. So tonight I bought about a dollar’s worth. Below is the recipe that I winged while making tonight’s dinner:
The recipe (serves one, enough for a mini meal)
1 generous handful fiddleheads (these should be dark green in colour)
1 lovely, organic portobello mushroom
1/2 red pepper
2-3 cloves organic garlic
1 dollop olive oil
organic chicken broth (about 1/8 cup)
dried chili flakes
salt
water

Fill a small sauce pan with enough water to boil the fiddleheads. Salt, and allow water to boil vigorously.

While the water boils, trim the fiddleheads so that there’s only about a 1/4″ of stem, discard any unfurled fiddleheads (appearantly these taste weedy). Wash the fiddles, brushing away any left over papery chafe.

Slip the fiddleheads into the boiling water, and allow to boil for 5 minutes. Any longer will make them tough (or so my veggie book tells me).

Slice up the garlic. Pour enough olive oil into a skillet or wok to cover the bottom, add the garlic.

Slice up the mushroom. When the oil is sizzling nicely, add to pan. The shrooms will absorb the oil. To keep them from drying out, add a bit of chicken broth (or whatever broth you want. You could also use water) to keep the shrooms from burning and sticking to the pan. I didn't measure, I just poured until I thought I’d added enough.

Drain the fiddleheads, and add to the shroom and garlic concoction.

Sprinkle with dried chili flakes to taste.

When the broth is gone (the shrooms will suck this up too!), you’re done!

Eat.

This was so amazingly tasty, that I immediately wished that the store was open so I could run out and buy more tonight. I’ll be getting more tomorrow, that’s for sure. I want to eat my fill of these little babies before they’re no longer available for the year.

Garlic Jars

2006-05-29T21:07:00.000-04:00

Buff Stoneware and White Stoneware garlic jars.
Sent by Quail Creek Pottery.
Link.

Lemon-Garlic Broiled Shimp

2006-05-19T13:32:00.000-04:00

JadeMarie sent this recipe. It looks super extra delicious;

Ingredients:

2 pounds shrimp
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup melted butter or margarine

Directions:

Peel and devein shrimp and set aside. In a small saucepan, cook garlic in butter/margarine until tender. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper. Arrange shrimp in a single layer on a baking pan. Pour sauce over shrimp. Broil about 4 inches from heat source for 6 to 8 minutes or until shrimp are pink and tender. Baste once during broiling with sauce in pan. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with crusty bread to absorb sauce.

About 4 servings

Have a happy Victoria Day Weekend, everyone!!

Chicken and garlic

2006-05-14T09:19:00.000-04:00

Nina sent the recipe to this delicious-looking and very galicky dish:

The dish is carefully constructed by pounding some chicken fillets (not too carefully), so they spread out.
Careful to not overdo it, so the meat will still be intact and won't have "holes" in it.
Next, you mash up 1 to 2 cloves of garlic, half a tablespoon of butter, salt, pepper and some chopped parsley, zap it in the microwave a little (only a few seconds, you don't want the butter to be all runny, just soft and manageable).
Mix everything up and add the flavoured butter to the centre of the fillet, rolling it up and pinning the edges with toothpicks. Sprinkle a bit of parsley on top, season well and drizzle a bit of oil, and then cook until you reach the desired appearance. I expect it would go nicely with a side of mashed potatoes.
My own sidedish was a grilled butternut squash and sweet potato dish I'm saving for later posting. :)

Sweet, Sweet Garlic

2006-05-10T15:56:00.000-04:00

Sweet, Sweet Garlic
Originally uploaded by Octopus's Garden.

Looks delicious!

Maria's Garlic Martini

2006-04-30T20:14:00.000-04:00

garlic martini
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.

A few weeks ago we went to the One of a Kind Spring Show with Jay and Jayme. I made an amazing discovery: The Garlic Box. They had a booth at the Show. They have everything garlic and I was so excited it's good I hadn't brought my credit card or I would have bought absolutely everything. I ended up buying a jar of pickled garlic cloves.
I decided to make my very own garlic martini. It is exactly the same as a gin martini, but instead of using olives, or cocktail onions or even a twist of lemon, I used a pickled clove of garlic.

Try it, it was delicious!

Garlic Lime Chicken

2006-04-23T10:18:00.000-04:00

Clara was diagnosed with cancer and will have surgery on Wednesday. We are all thinking of her.
She sent this email:

here is a recipe i got from www.thyca.org, the thyroid cancer survivors association....for a few weeks before every radiaactive iodine scan a patient will have to go on a low iodine diet. Luckily garlic can make this prcess more bearable...when i have to go on this diet in a few weeks i will be trying this out...

3-4 fresh limes (their juice)
4 large boneless chicken breasts
6 cloves garlic chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil

Cube chicken into bite size pieces. Begin to saute with olive oil and garlic about 5-6 minutes. Add all lime juice from squeezed fresh limes. Continue to cook till all juice is absorbed, and forms a brown crusty coating (about 20 minutes).

Thanks Clara, we hope everything goes right. I love you.

Question

2006-04-19T21:14:00.000-04:00

Larry sent the following question:

How much bottled garlic equals 1 head,etc
thanks
LARRY

Judging by the amount of chopped garlic that fits in one teaspoon, I would say that one teaspoonful of bottled garlic equals 1.5 cloves.

Any other suggestions or ideas?

Garlic bread

2006-04-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

Crush garlic
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.

Accordion Guy and The Redhead had me over for dinner last week. They prepared delicious garlic bread for me. Amazingly, it was my first time seeing how garlic bread is prepared.
The first step is to crush the peeled garlic. For one baguette we used 4 cloves of garlic.
Mix the crushed garlic with about half a cup of butter or margarine.
Spread this garlic butter on the diagonally sliced baguette bread.
Put it in the oven and broil for about 10 minutes or until toasted.

Delicious golden toasted garlic bread!

Garlic Chicken

2006-04-13T09:50:00.000-04:00

Melissa sent her recipe for garlic chicken:

1 whole chicken - cavity cleaned out
10 heads of garlic - peeled

450F oven for 40 min.

I stuff the cavity of the chicken and then slip pieces of garlic under the skin.

If I make mashed potatoes with the meal the cooked garlic goes with nicely.

Drunken Garlic Pot Roast

2006-04-08T14:03:00.000-04:00

Bunky Mikrut was asking for a "real" pot roast recipe (featuring beef), as opposed to the previous one (Garlic Pot Roast) which was made with pork. So this is a recipe sent by JadeMarie, enjoy:

Don't be afraid of all the garlic in this! It gets really mild from the long cooking process and gives the meat a wonderful flavor.

2 1/2 lbs boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of fat
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
24 cloves garlic, minced (about 4 tbsp.)
2 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 cup hot water
8 ounces lager beer
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
cornstarch (dissolved in water; for gravy)

In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp. of the oil and brown roast on both sides, seasoning with salt and pepper; remove to a platter and keep warm.
Add the remaining tbsp of oil to the pan and add the onions, cook until they just start to wilt then add the garlic, then cook until the onions are tender, a few minutes more.
Add the bouillon cubes to the hot water and stir to dissolve; add that to the skillet along with the beer, brown sugar, mustard, and vinegar; stir to mix well.
Pour mixture into the bottom of the crockpot.
Place roast on top of liquid, cutting into pieces if it doesn't lay flat.
Set the crockpot on low and cook for 7-8 hours.
Remove meat from crockpot and pour liquid into a pan on the stove; heat to a boil, and mix a slurry out of the cornstarch and water; thicken pan liquid with slurry to make a gravy.
Serve gravy over meat or with potatoes or noodles.

Garlic Pot Roast

2006-04-05T12:15:00.000-04:00

Meagan sent this recipe for Garlic Pot Roast from Canadian Living Magazine:

Garlic Pot Roast (Canadian Living)

Ingredients

1 tsp (5 mL) fennel seeds
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp (20 mL) chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp/5 mL dried)
1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil
1 tsp (5 mL) dry mustard
1/2 tsp (2 mL) each salt and pepper
1 boneless centre-cut double-loin pork roast (about 2-1/4 lb/1.125 kg)

Preparation

Using mortar and pestle or with bottom of heavy skillet, crush fennel seeds; place in small bowl. Mix in garlic, thyme, oil, dry mustard, salt and pepper to form paste; rub all over roast.

Place roast on rack in roasting pan. Roast in centre of 325°F (160°C) convection oven until meat thermometer inserted in centre registers 160°F (70°C), about 80 minutes. Transfer to cutting board; tent with foil and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

Conventional oven: Centre rack at 325°F (160°C) for 2 hours.

Serve With....

Roasted Sweet Potatoes: As an easy accompaniment, toss together 4 sweet potatoes, peeled and halved; 2 heads garlic, tips removed; 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil; a few sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp (2 mL) dried thyme; and 1/2 tsp (2 mL) each salt and pepper; cook in pan with pork roast.

UPDATE: Sorry about the mistake. I don't know what happened. Here's the recipe.

Roasted garlic with a charcoal grill

2006-03-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

Aricthered sent a comment about the roasted garlic recipes we've posted:

"Using whole heads of garlic I remove the skin, wrap them in tin foil and place the foil wrapped garlic heads arround the coals under the grill. No seasings or oils are used on the garlic and we squeeze the garlig heads on to bread just as in the other recipe".

Thanks, perfect timing for barbecue season!

Garlic after-smell

2006-03-23T12:31:00.000-05:00

Lina sent this question:

I love garlic but my breathe and/or my pores really let everyone know it after eating it.

Do you have an answer as to how I can prevent everyone knowing when I eat garlic?

Thanks in advance,

Linda

I really have no idea how to do it short of having everyone in your party/house/family eat garlic with you. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Baked or Fried Potato Skins with Aioli Sauce Dip

2006-03-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, JadeMarie sent this recipe:

An old Irish saying goes that "Only two things in this world are too serious to be jested on, potatoes and matrimony." This recipe is a perfect appetizer for a St. Patrick's Day party, very easy to make, and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
2 - 6 medium potatoes
3 tbsp. melted butter (for baked skins)
coarse salt
oil for deep frying (fried skins)

Aioli Sauce Dip
cooked pulp of 2 med. potatoes
8 cloves garlic, crushed
1 c. virgin olive oil
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. lemon juice

Scrub potatoes, rinse well and pat dry. Pierce the skins several time with a
fork. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until tender (or microwave on HIGH for 8 minutes). Let stand 4 minutes to cool slightly, cut in half, then scoop out flesh (set aside to use for the dip) This will leave an approximately 1/2 inch thick potato shell. Take a sharp knife, and cut shells into eight equal sections.
For baked skins, brush inside and outside with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt. Place on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil and bake at 475 degrees for 10-15 minutes until crisp.
For fried skins, heat oil and fry skins until crisp. Drain on paper towels.

To prepare the sauce:
Combine potato pulp, garlic and half the oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Add egg yolk and slowly add the remaining oil and the lemon juice.
If sauce seems too thick, add a teaspoon or two of water. Serve sauce in a dip bowl surrounded by potato skins.

And, of course, GREEN BEER!

Garlicky Bread Soup

2006-03-12T22:50:00.000-05:00

JadeMarie sent a delicious recipe for Garlicky Bread Soup:
Garlicky Bread Soup
By Cait Johnson, author of Witch in the Kitchen (Inner Traditions, 2001).

Simple Solution
More people I know have succumbed to colds and flus this March than in the middle of winter. That's where a bowl of this soothing, restorative soup can come in handy: garlic is a known immune-booster, and this recipe--based on soups beloved by wise peasants in the Mediterranean--delivers health-promoting nourishment with every luscious bite. It's also inexpensive and simple to make.

Even if you're feeling in top form, Garlicky Bread Soup is a tasty and beneficial way to keep the winds of March at bay. Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
16 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 quarts water
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly into rounds
1/2 cup sherry
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
4 thick slices of good-quality bread
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add onions and saute, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and saute 5 minutes more.

2. Add water and herbs, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer soup for 15 minutes. Add potatoes and carrots and simmer for another 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add sherry and continue to simmer an additional 5 minutes.

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place a bread slice in the bottom of each soup bowl, ladle the soup over the bread, and serve hot, garnished with the cheese, if desired.

Serves 4.

Spanish Pork Chops

2006-03-05T17:12:00.000-05:00

Recipe sent by IWANT.

Ingredients.....

4 pork chops (any cut you like and trim all the fat off them)
3 large cans of chopped tomatoes or the equivalent of your own if you do them. STRAIN them! Get out all the juice as you don't need it. Simmering these will produce more juice.
2 chopped onions
two or three cloves of minced fresh garlic (depends on your tastes)
2 tablespoons approx. of Italian spice mixture or use oregano, basil and thyme (about a couple of teaspoons each) I actually just throw it in so the measurements for the spices are approx.

- You will need a deep pan for this. A regular frying pan won't do it, it will overflow when it starts to simmer. I have a large pot/pan. As large around as a large frying pan but about 3 inches high.

- pour the tomatoes in the pan. Then mix in the onions, then the spices including the garlic. If you wish to saute the garlic first be my guest but watch it doesn't burn.

- now, you have everything in the pan but the chops. Time to get your hands dirty. Moosh aside the tomatoe mixture a bit and being putting the chops in there. 4 will fit nicely. Once they are in, pull a bit of that tomato mixture over top of them and try to cover them in it the best you can. When it starts to simmer it will bubble up so don't worry if it isn't perfect.

- put it on medium heat and simmer them for 1 & a 1/2 hours. Check them now and then but they really do cook themselves with little running back and forth. Just make sure they are not boiling at a heavy rate. I usually end up turning them down to about 2 or 3 later on.

- now that that is done, wash and scrub 4 potatoes and pop them in the oven for the same amount of time.

These chops will literally fall off the bone they are so tender. This recipe also produces lots of sauce so there is plenty for each chop and the potatoes. These make great leftovers too.

Garlic Burgers

2006-03-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

Andrea sent this email with her Garlic Burgers recipe:

Flavor up your hamburgers with a clove of garlic in each patty! When I was out of my usual seasoning that I love, I decided to season with garlic instead. This is my favorite way to cook hamburgers now and works well on a George Foreman Grill.

Garlic is the only seasoning I add because I put ketchup, onions, mayo on my hamburgers. Just spread a clove of pressed garlic on some ground chuck which you're going to form into a patty, fold over the ground beef to hide the garlic and shape into a patty. Grill till done. As the hamburger cooks the juices spread the garlic taste--so each bite will taste delicious.

Sounds really good, and I do have the George Foreman Grill. I may just have to make them soon.