I love fresh garlic. The season is short, just three weeks, and then the purple-streaked bulbs disappear from the market. I rush to buy my yearly 10 kilos, and shlep all that fragrance home in a taxi because I’m afraid that if I get on the bus with it, I’ll have to pretend I don’t notice all the dirty looks from 20 fellow passengers. Even so, the taxi drivers usually open all the windows. Never mind. I’m the one whose whole apartment reeks for a week, until the garlic dries.
So why do I buy all that garlic, and what do I do with it? Well, have a look at the post I wrote about garlic last year. Just about everything I cook has garlic in it. I detest the expensive imported Chinese stuff that goes sprouty a few days after buying it. I like to buy locally grown garlic that lasts ten months. I buy so much because I know there will be some loss – by the seventh or eight month, some will go bad and have to be thrown out. And – fresh new garlic is so delicious.
Follow the link above for ideas on how to eat this seasonal treat. And here’s my panegyric on roasted garlic.
Fresh garlic cloves, being juicy, don’t burn and turn bitter as fast as dried garlic does when you’re frying. This evening we enjoyed simple garlicky potatoes made like this:
A handful of baby potatoes, washed, sliced in half horizontally, and steamed till just tender.
1/2 a red onion, thinly sliced
6 entire cloves of fresh garlic, peeled
Olive oil to cover the bottom of a non-stick frying pan
Salt and pepper
I fried the onion slices over medium heat till wilted, then drained the potatoes, and added them to the pan. When the potatoes began to take on a golden color, I added the whole garlic cloves. Sprinkled salt and pepper over all. Shook the pan once in a while to ensure that the potatoes and the garlic would become golden 0n all sides. The onion became crisp and stringy. When the potatoes were cooked through and had acquired a golden-brown color, the garlic cloves were also done. I served. There were none left to photograph.
On Passover, when it’s one potato, two potato, three potato at almost every meal, that easy but interesting recipe might come in handy.
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I still have to buy my stock of garlic, there is a garlic mobile that ride around town with his pickup truck loaded with the aromatic stuff.
I love garlic too! I have only bought fresh garlic, once, I think,and have never roasted it,but I certaintly want to try that as long as there is fresh garlic on the market…
Run and get it now, Yaelian – the season will be over in the next week or so.
Yes, I’m jealous of that! Around where I live there’s a man who comes around with a horse and wagon, selling watermelon. But if he’d switch to fresh garlic I’d be so happy.
Hi Mimi,
I have been stalking your site for about a year now – thanks for all the great ideas, photos and commentary. It’s great to hear you stocked up on so much domestic garlic! I was told that garlic from China is actually really unhealthy – treated with all kinds of chemicals and bleached to make it look more aesthetically pleasing. Check out this article:
http://www.naturalnews.com/022801.html