Wednesday, April 8, 2015

G is for Garlic

I was ready for a relatively simple Pinterest challenge today for my A to Z post, especially after yesterday's stabbing incident, so when my friend Melissa suggested doing something with garlic, I went with it.

I have seen pins with recipes for roasting garlic whole, and even though I use a lot of garlic in my cooking, I'd not only never roasted garlic before, but I'd also never eaten it that way. Perfect for a challenge.

Here's the pin:

Found on barefeetinthekitchen.com


This was going to be an EASY one! Two ingredients (one of which I had to go buy, naturally, that being the garlic). I stopped at Panera for a baguette (or two), then ran by the Neighborhood Market and picked up three heads of garlic and two half gallons of ice cream, because it felt weird to just buy three heads of garlic. When I got home, while I looked over the recipe, I had a double dip French vanilla ice cream cone WITH SPRINKLES, since I have 2/3 of a large box of cones leftover from the edible teacup fiasco. Then I took a nap. 



The recipe directions are so easy they are hardly to be considered a recipe. Cut off the top of the garlic head, exposing the inside of the cloves. Set it in a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle some olive oil over it, then bring the foil up around it and seal it. I did just that, times three, and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour. (It smelled absolutely divine while it was roasting.) When they were nearly done, I whipped up some easy and delicious marinara sauce, cooked some spaghetti, and sliced the bread. After the garlic had cooled a bit, it was time for the unveiling.

Cut the top off without mishap.


Olive oil drizzled on.



Sealed and ready for roasting.

Minor problem: the foil stuck to the garlic (or the garlic stuck to the foil) and roasted cloves were then attached to the foil, which I had to pry off with my fingers. To get the rest of the roasted garlic out, I was supposed to squeeze the entire garlic head. This is not pretty. And the papery covering, which is now roasted and quite brittle, kept flaking off and falling into the roasted garlic, and for some reason, it made me think of fish scales and grossed me out. No valid reason for any of it. After much squeezing, however, I freed as much roasted garlic as I could. And we spread it on slices of baguette.

Beautifully roasted.


The squeezing was slimy and gross. AND I have two
holes in my fingers from yesterday's skewer mishap.

And it was good, but I thought it needed salt. A sprinkle of pretzel salt later, and it was much tastier.

The Pinterest pin recipe said that roasting the garlic mellowed it, made it less pungent. "Less than" is a relative term, however, and I'm thinking that tomorrow's post may very well be entitled "H is for Halitosis."

Definite Pinterest win. 

24 comments:

  1. Sounds good. I do love some good garlic bread. Perhaps the foil needs to be sprayed?

    Liz A. from Laws of Gravity

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    1. The next time I make it, I will definitely give it a shot of cooking spray. It never occurred to me it would stick, and there was something about picking off those slimy little cloves where they stuck to the foil that made me think of bagworms. Blech.

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  2. I think non-stick aluminum foil would be perfect for this recipe. I've never roasted garlic, either, but I don't know why not. Sounds delicious!

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    1. I guess I could have put more olive oil on it or sprayed it with cooking spray, but who knew? It really was yummy! It would make delicious garlic butter.

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  3. I always wanted to try this I think the garlic would taste sweet gonna try it someday ...pinterest wins are you keeping score ....oh btw I tagged you lol

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    1. I saw your tag - thank you! I love questionnaires! I guess the roasted garlic could be called sweet. It was definitely more mellow.

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  4. Ha love this entry in the A to Z, kept me giggling! (I love garlic but also not sure I want to have just garlic on the bread... although I guess it's just a different way to make garlic bread)

    Mars xx
    Curling Stones for Lego People

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    1. I think I would like the roasted garlic best if it were mixed with butter. Garlic butter = good. Roasted garlic butter = better

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  5. We do this a lot and yup a spritz on the foil works for sticking

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  6. Replies
    1. It certainly was easy to make! Not as easy to squeeze out of the bulb, but can't complain about the rest of the process!

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  7. We received a garlic roaster as a wedding present. We lugged it around from apartment to apartment for years, never once using it. It finally went to goodwill. Another wedding present I regret donating before I had kids and really started cooking and could use such things.

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    1. A garlic roaster would just be something to wash. Throwing away the foil is so much better!

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  8. Good one. I've always wanted to roast garlic. I even own one of those terra cotta garlic ovens (I just had to have it). But I've never done it. That would eliminate the foil sticking problem, but I'm not sure about the rest. Maybe someday I'll try it. I sure like garlic bread. Once I had a boyfriend who ate so much garlic it oozed from his pores. The relationship didn't last long. lol

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    1. But just think about washing an oily, garlicky terra cotta oven, and a spritz of cooking spray to a sheet of foil sounds pretty good!
      Was the guy trying to keep away vampires...?

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  9. Roasted garlic is fabulous. I even have a little terra cotta roaster just for garlic.

    Sunni
    http://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/

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    1. Several people have mentioned that. I am really very lazy and just see it as something else to wash.

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  10. I used to love to make garlic bread…. was very good at it… the kind that makes your eyes water when you take the first bite.
    roasted must be good too

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    1. My husband had heard one time that you should rub a clove of garlic on the cut side of the bread and then toast it lightly. We tried it once, and it intensified the garlic so much we had tears running down our cheeks and lost some of the skin from the inside of our mouths.

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  11. Sounds good, if a bit labor intensive! I still have a few heads of home-grown garlic lying around. I'll have to try it!

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    1. Try it! It wasn't too labor intensive, except for the squeezing part. There's got to be a better way to squeeze that stuff out!

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  12. I picked garlic for my "G" post also but from the other side I guess you could say. I talked about how easy it is to grow your own! Check out http://cluckcluckbuzz.blogspot.com/2015/04/g-is-for-garlic.html to learn how and you'd have something awesome to boast about! Thanks for the great informative post

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    1. I'll have to see how to grow it! Can it be done in a pot?

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