GARLIC

[Girlfrommars77]

I have bought eighteen bulbs and used one (they were only selling them in big bags at the local so have spent £2 bloody 50) What recipes do you have that need a shed load of garlic??

I know it’s not really an AIBU but posting for traffic....or aibu to have so much flipping garlic....

Where is selling 18 bulbs for £2.50?? I need to get down there. I bought one bulb for that the other day, yes I am insane (it was also smoked and absolutely delicious).

Nigella's roast chicken uses 2 whole bulbs of garlic roasted in the pan alongside, plus a few shallots. You'd get through your garlic by Christmas if you did that every Sunday, and probably won't get any colds going round either!!

I buy it in bulk , and spend a hour or three peeling it and then put it in a Kilner jar with veg oil , make sure the oil is a inch or so over the garlic . you then have garlic oil and ready to use cloves . over time the cloves go darker , milder and softer , the oil goes darker and stronger !
I have been know to dip a pastry brush in the oil and 'paint' both sides of a slice of normal bread with the oil then fry it in a very hot pan, almost instant garlic bread. Mmmmmmmmm

@ginghambox. I have just choked laughing on the croissant I was supposed to be saving for the morning

Make garlic purée.

Cut the bulbs in half (skin on, don't peel them), drizzle with olive oil and pop them in a low/medium oven for 1/2 hours until they are light golden and soft.

Then squeeze the garlic "pods" out into a blender (or a bowl and use a masher - works but not as smooth as a result), add some salt and olive oil (not much just to lubricate).

Pop in a jar(s) and top with a thin layer of olive oil to seal it.

Keeps for about a month.

As it's cooked you can add it to any food without cooking the pungency of the garlic out.

Its lovely in sauces, dips and bruschetta etc

Some really stupid comments 😷

(And some v good)!

@Angie169

You need to cook it in the oil, like confit. If you don't then the chances of botulism spreading are very real. You never put raw garlic in oil and just leave it because you're not killing the bacteria and garlic us one of the worst culprits for botulism. You're going to say you've done it for years with no problem, but it only takes one dodgy uncooked clove. Google it.

Iaimtomisbehave1 is correct. The advice to submerge raw garlic in oil and keep it for ages is very dangerous. Garlic bulbs can pick up the bacteria that cause botulism from the soil. Storing garlic or any other low-acid vegetable in oxygen-free conditions at room temperature can encourage the growth of the toxins responsible for food-borne botulism, a dangerous illness. Eating raw garlic doesn’t pose a hazard, but storing it for later use could, if you mix it with oil and keep it at room temperature.

Just because "it never happened to me" doesn't mean it won't happen one day. After all, you would never cross a road without looking for traffic first would you?

Another one to add - the "raw" garlic you buy submerged in oil is blanched, so boiled briefly but long enough to kill bacteria. My grandmother used to bottle loads of it and it all was blanched first. The bonus is, I think, though this may be apocryphal, is that it softens up the garlic a little bit so it infuses into the oil better and then you get even more garlicky oil.

Thanks for the tip about cooking/blanching it - I once made the oil in garlic but ended up chucking it as I was too nervous to use it!!

I mean, my grandmother always blanched it so I do the same just because that's how I was taught but I may now try confiting it as advised above, I guess that would do the same thing without losing any garlicky goodness at all and confit garlic is the dogs bolleaux 😛

Plant some of those bad boys. Separate the cloves, let them sprout a bit. Stick em separately in a patch of ground. See what happens.

Get some local honey, enough to half fill a big glass jar (say, an old big mayo jar), peel a stack of cloves (this bit is a PITA, not gonna lie) Stick em in the honey in a clean jar with space at the top. Close it. Give it a shake to coat the cloves for a few days. Open and close the lid to "burp" the jar every day. Then leave for about 3 months, burping the jar every day. Garlic flavoured honey for salad dressing. Eat a clove of honeyed garlic as and when to stave off colds. Aggressive garlic flavour has softened as it does when you roast it.

Camel? What? Is that a joke?

I grow my own garlic, enough for a whole year.

When harvested I peel the cloves and bake in a covered shallow dish at 80° for an hour or so until all soft and pale gold. Then mash to a puree with a fork and put into little pots 2" square (Pound land) with lids.

These go into freezer apart from one which lives in fridge ready for use. When the fridge one is empty I get another from freezer, and so on. The pots will last forever, and I also freeze chopped basil in olive oil and parsley in butter.

I like that @BMW6

Garlic soup is gorgeous.

Freeze it chopped, or separate the cloves and freeze.