National Garlic Day

garlic martini, a photo by Maria in Toronto on Flickr.

April 19 is National Garlic Day. Los Angeles Times found the above picture and recipe of Garlic Martini and contacted me. They posted it in an awesome feature that loves all things garlic it's titled 17 outlandish garlic dishes, and it's highly recommended.
And now, I guess it's time to celebrate a late National Garlic Day, or better yet, celebrate Garlic Weekend!!

Garlic Fettuccine Alfredo

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

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

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!

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

Happy Bloggiversary, Garlicster!

Vegan cauliflower and leek soup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Garlic By Thibert
Originally uploaded by ravenswift

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

Smoked garlic on pizza

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

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

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!