If I am to keep the reader interested, I must be brief. But I'm talking about garlic: I throw brevity out the window. Read on you more rigorous readers.
I was nosing around the kitchen tonight and fixed my eyes on the four cloves of garlic I'd bought at the market a couple of weeks back, which had provoked my wife's annoyed reminder, "You always buy whole cloves, but you're the only one who cooks with them. I don't like cutting them." I stared at them and hankered after the pickled garlic I love to pick out of the garlic-stuffed olives I treat myself to on the rare blue moon.
I realized I wouldn't be able to work any sort of insta-pickle on the bad boys I was looking at, so I hopped onto the computer and googled "garlic snacks," progressing through various searches until I found a recipe that interested me: deep-fried garlic. I unfortunately was without some of the key ingredients for the batter, so I just did my own thing.
First I peeled three cloves of garlic (nifty little trick you mightn't know: nuke the garlic clove very briefly, maybe 10-15 seconds, and the peeling of the garlic couldn't be easier). Then I poured maybe four tablespoons of corn meal in a bowl, followed by an obnoxious amount of black pepper and generous use of parsley flakes. When I reached into the fridge for milk, I discovered the last of it had been used, so I added an egg and some molten butter to the mix. Stir, stir, stir, and we have the batter. I put the garlic in boiling water first, for maybe half a minute. Although I'd already peeled the cloves, which was one of the objects of the blanching, I still put them in the water since the original recipe had called for 3-4 minutes in the boiling water. Then I dipped those babies in the water and deep-fried 'em.
They're pretty good. I'm beerless right now (and on the Sabbath, alas!), but I can tell they'd be good with several beers, from a good lager to an English-style ale or maybe one of the more-spicy-less-fruity Belgians.
Unfortunately they're not as zesty as I'd hoped. The robust backbone of the garlic flavor is definitely still there, but there's not much pop to these puppies. The water robbed some of the flavor. I might try just frying them without any boiling beforehand, then sprinkle them with a little something. Or I might come up with a little something my own: Joffre's stir-fried garlic snackies. Hmmmm. I think stir-frying might help me keep the full flavor, maybe even give me a strong enough platform for me to add a little zest of my own.
UPDATE: It must be Sunday. KrazyCeltic wrote of bacon-love today.
I was nosing around the kitchen tonight and fixed my eyes on the four cloves of garlic I'd bought at the market a couple of weeks back, which had provoked my wife's annoyed reminder, "You always buy whole cloves, but you're the only one who cooks with them. I don't like cutting them." I stared at them and hankered after the pickled garlic I love to pick out of the garlic-stuffed olives I treat myself to on the rare blue moon.
I realized I wouldn't be able to work any sort of insta-pickle on the bad boys I was looking at, so I hopped onto the computer and googled "garlic snacks," progressing through various searches until I found a recipe that interested me: deep-fried garlic. I unfortunately was without some of the key ingredients for the batter, so I just did my own thing.
First I peeled three cloves of garlic (nifty little trick you mightn't know: nuke the garlic clove very briefly, maybe 10-15 seconds, and the peeling of the garlic couldn't be easier). Then I poured maybe four tablespoons of corn meal in a bowl, followed by an obnoxious amount of black pepper and generous use of parsley flakes. When I reached into the fridge for milk, I discovered the last of it had been used, so I added an egg and some molten butter to the mix. Stir, stir, stir, and we have the batter. I put the garlic in boiling water first, for maybe half a minute. Although I'd already peeled the cloves, which was one of the objects of the blanching, I still put them in the water since the original recipe had called for 3-4 minutes in the boiling water. Then I dipped those babies in the water and deep-fried 'em.
They're pretty good. I'm beerless right now (and on the Sabbath, alas!), but I can tell they'd be good with several beers, from a good lager to an English-style ale or maybe one of the more-spicy-less-fruity Belgians.
Unfortunately they're not as zesty as I'd hoped. The robust backbone of the garlic flavor is definitely still there, but there's not much pop to these puppies. The water robbed some of the flavor. I might try just frying them without any boiling beforehand, then sprinkle them with a little something. Or I might come up with a little something my own: Joffre's stir-fried garlic snackies. Hmmmm. I think stir-frying might help me keep the full flavor, maybe even give me a strong enough platform for me to add a little zest of my own.
UPDATE: It must be Sunday. KrazyCeltic wrote of bacon-love today.
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