What am I going to do with all this garlic??

[Gruzinkerbell]

Long story short, I planted a lot of garlic last autumn in my veg patch (to avoid having lots of bare soil for neighbours' cats to poo all over) and it's all come up and will soon be ready for harvesting.

I plan to dry/cure it so that it'll keep a while but the amount I've got will last us several years at the rate we currently use the stuff so what can I do with it?

If I roast a few bulbs whole, can I preserve them in a jar of oil to add to everything I'm ever going to cook from now on recipes?

What has been done to the garlic in those mixed olive anti pasti things that makes them so delicious?

What else can I do with it?

Or shall I just give them away?

Ideas please!!!

Fend off the vampires!

Garlic soup for the freezer. Just the best thing for coughs and colds. Brine some whole peeled cloves in jars; don't oil them as they won't last as long!
jars of pasta sauce (if you have a surfeit of tomatoes later in the season too)
Make an attractive wreath to wear while bicycling?

Get some pretty bottles, add several raw cloves and some herbs/chillies/mixture of both and fill with olive oil. Great as gifts or for school fetes etc.

I would definitely roast it and store it in olive oil. You won't need to peel and chop for your cooking again, just use the oil.

Garlic soup's a good idea! And I'll definitely be making loads of garlicky pasta sauces.

Sorry to ask an obvious question but how do I brine them? What's the ratio of salt to water? Is anything else added?

I'll start crocheting a beret to complete my garlic bicycling look!

And no, there'll be no vampires anywhere near us!

Garlic oil, of course!! Don't know why I didn't think of that - great idea. Just have to find some cute little bottles now and that'll be Christmas sorted too.

We just had about 1 head of garlic each for lunch - peel cloves and cook very very slowly in olive oil (about 30 min), then eat with pasta and goat's cheese. It's lovely. But we don't plan to socialise this afternoon.

If you cook garlic long enough, it doesn't give you paint-stripper breath. Bung a handful of whole peeled cloves into your next stew, and they will be lovely and soft and sweet to eat.

That reminds me of traditional Chinese red-cooked recipes such as this - just stick a few heads of garlic in to stew with the meat.

Whizz it up with an equal quantity of ginger and some olive oil. So yummy in homemade curry. It can be frozen too.

Brining:
milkingweeds.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/on-preserving-garlicfeaturing-2-ways-to.html

Chop the garlic, then spread it over some sliced courgette and bake. It's seriously tasty.

Make this - it's lovely (although we do it without the mozzarella) and if you make a big batch in one go, it's freezable and then just defrost and reheat in oven for 10 mins before serving

Thank you all so much! I knew I'd get plenty of great ideas here. I'm looking forward to pulling up all my bulbs now!