Garlic is found in almost every cuisine for good reason – there is no matching its tastiness in a variety of dishes. Here are a few tips for buying, storing and cooking with garlic.
Buying Garlic:
Look for garlic heads that have firm, compact cloves, covered with the dry, papery covering. If a garlic head has soft cloves, empty spots or the cloves have any green shoots coming out from them, it is old, and best avoided.
You will often find Elephant garlic at the grocery store. This kind of garlic is much milder and blander than regular garlic, so it isn’t a good direct substitute for your recipes.
Storing Garlic:
The first rule of storing garlic is that you shouldn’t store it in your refrigerator. It will sprout and turn bitter, and possibly go moldy. Yuck.
Store it in a cool, dark, dry place. I keep my garlic in a terra cotta garlic keeper that absorbs moisture and keeps the garlic away from direct light and has venting holes. It’s a decorative, fun way to store the garlic. Don’t store garlic in a sealed plastic container. A small paper sack works fine.
Cooking with Garlic:
Remember that the more garlic is chopped or crushed, the stronger the taste will be. This is important in deciding how to prepare the garlic for your recipe. Also, the more you cook garlic, the mellower it will be. That’s why dishes such as chicken baked with forty garlic cloves won’t stick with you like raw, finely diced garlic in a salad dressing.
To make a basic garlic bread, mince one clove of garlic. Add it to 1/2 cup butter and melt the butter with the garlic in the microwave. Spread on french bread. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan or Asiago cheese and some paprika if desired. Broil until bread is golden.
Mashed potatoes with garlic are a real treat. Just boil a few peeled cloves of garlic with your potatoes and mash them in.
Tip: I heard about this tip a long time before I tried it, because I didn’t think it would work, but it does! To get the smell of garlic off your hands, rub them on stainless steel. I use my faucet and sink.