December 4, 2004
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Garlic Salad and Garlic Soup
I decided to make myself a garlic salad a couple of days ago.
I peeled two heads of garlic. Cathy saw me working and told me she had discovered a neat recipe for garlic soup that she would brew up if I would peel enough garlic for it. That was another two heads of garlic. Since I was already peeling garlic, doubling the amount wasn't a great problem.
I slowly fried my share of the whole garlic cloves in olive oil until they were golden brown and just barely soft, stirring constantly, carefully hoarding the oil after. When the garlic cloves cooled, I used them as an additional ingredient in a chef's salad based on spring mix, which I can usually tolerate. It shared the salad with chunks of leftover turkey, mozzarella cheese, quartered small tomatoes and chunks of an avocado. I topped it with a sweet onion vinaigrette.
I ate both heads of garlic all by myself.
I later used the oil to fry a bun for a hamburger and a bagel for my breakfast the following morning. It imparted the garlic flavor to both forms of bread.
Yesterday, Cathy made the promised soup. I'm not sure of all of the details, not having present during its making, but the garlic was fried in olive oil, then processed in the blender, with garlic, oil and some bread crumbs winding up in the soup. Two heads of garlic made four servings, of which I got one (Cathy got two, Delia one). The soup was excellent. I will gladly prepare the garlic any time Cathy decides she wants to make the soup, which she said was easy.
That was another half head of garlic the day following eating two heads of garlic.
I told several people about it. They had difficulty believing me. There was no trace of garlic fragrance coming from my body.
Eaten raw, garlic is hot and peppery. Cooking gives garlic a totally different taste, one that seems to fill the mouth and, perhaps, the soul. It is a flavor difficult to describe apart from its ability to expand upon the flavors of other foods it accompanies.
Garlic is not to be feared unless overcooked or cooked in the presence of rancid fat, especially rancid animal fat, when it can create a smell that will drive skunks away.
Even if you manage to overcook garlic slightly, you will feel it inside you, particularly in your skin, long before those around you notice anything.
Garlic is good stuff.