We love hearing your food ideas. See below for some of the ideas garlic lovers have sent us....
Here’s a modern take on that delicious dish GARLIC PRAWNS from author and campaigner – engaging Children with Nature – Caroline Webster
- photo by Caroline Webster
✮ 2-3 knobs of good quality butter
✮ 1 large bulb of garlic, cloves peeled and finely sliced
✮ 1 tsp chilli flakes or 1 fresh large red chilli, seeded and diced
✮ 1 and half tsp of sweet paprika
✮ 2kg medium green king prawns, peeled, deveined, tails intact
✮ 2-3 good glugs of semi-sweet sherry
✮ 1/3 cup of chopped flat-leaf parsley
✮ 1-2 tsp lime juice
Method
Combine the butter, garlic, chilli, lime juice and paprika in a large frypan. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes or until it becomes aromatic. Increase heat to high.
Add prawns. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until prawns begin to turn pink. Add sherry and cook for a further minute until prawns are cooked through and sherry somewhat reduced. Remove from heat. Toss in parsley. SERVE.
(Of course, I use Olive Oil instead of butter - Patrice)
Ayurvedic Garlic Curry – From Carli Ratcliff
The below recipe was taught to me during a recent trip to Sri Lanka by Executive Chef Umesh Dhwark of AmanGalla, Galle, on the country's west coast.
Ingredients
✮Chopped red onions, 50g
✮100g Garlic cloves (slice the clove in half, through the middle, so it retains its 'clove shape')
✮Curry leaves, a few (plus extra for garnishing)
✮Mustard Seeds, 1/2 teaspoon
✮Fenugreek Seeds, 1/2 teaspoon
✮Turmeric Powder, 20g (yes 20g!)
✮Chilli Powder, 10g (optional)
✮Thick coconut milk (or cream) 150ml
✮Olive Oil, 1 Tablespoon
✮Water 2 Tablespoons
✮Sea Salt & Ground Black Pepper, to taste
Method
✮ Have all of the above ingredients measured and prepared before you begin.
✮ Heat the oil in a small saucepan, when very hot add the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds, listen for the popping sound of the mustard seeds. If the oil starts to burn, take the pan off the heat and stir the seeds, they will continue to cook even off the heat.
✮Put the pan back on the heat, add curry leaves and chopped onions. Saute until translucent.
✮Add turmeric and chilli powder, stir the spices through the onion and seed mixture. Take off the heat. Add 2 Tablespoons of water to wet the dry spices (this ensures that they won't taste 'powdery), stir to combine.
✮ Return the pan to the heat. Add garlic cloves, coconut milk, salt and pepper. Stir to combine all of the ingredients.
✮ Cook for 15-20 min on low heat until the garlic cloves are 'al dente'. The curry is very thick and has a rich yellow brown colour thanks to the enormous amount of turmeric.
✮ Garnish with fried curry leaves.
✮ Serve hot with steamed Basmati rice or Sri Lankan meat dishes
Preserving Tip
How I keep garlic out here is to peel it and put in wine. It preserves them, keeps their flavour and the wine can be used in the cooking as well. Melise
Baked Garlic
This year I’ve been using up broken cloves for roasting. Fill a quiche dish, brush with olive oil, sprinkle good salt and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. This can vary depending on the size of the cloves and your oven. This is an easier way to serve the cloves when you have many to feed.
For a showier way to present baked garlic leave the skin on. Cut the roots off. Slice the tops of the bulb off. Keep it whole. Pour extra virgin olive oil into the bulb. Sprinkle salt. Turn upside down onto a baking dish. Bake slowly for 30 minutes, turn over. Test if cooked. It needs to be soft all the way through. And browned on top. You'll find the flavour is mellow and sweet. The garlic caramelises.
Serve a whole bulb as a vegetable side order.
They store well in an air tight container for a few days. Use for dips, toss in pasta, on sandwiches etc.
Chicken with Forty Cloves
1 large free range chicken, about 1.6 - 1.8kg
1 lemon, cut into quarters
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup white wine
50g butter, diced
40 cloves garlic, skin on
Pre heat the oven to 180C. Wash and pat dry the chicken and sit in a baking tray. Squeeze the lemon wedges over the chicken then place in the cavity of the chicken with the bay leaves. Tie the legs together. Sprinkle the sea salt evenly over the skin of the chicken.
Pour the stock and wine into the baking tray then scatter the butter and garlic cloves around the chicken.
Cook in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting every 15 minutes with the juices. Remove from the oven and allow the chicken to rest in the baking tray for 15-20 minutes before carving and serving with green salad and mashed potatoes.
Garlic and Chilli Pasta
Cook pasta as per packet, or for one minute if fresh and home made.
Saute in olive oil finely chopped garlic - a tablespoon per person - add chopped chilli - volume will depend on preference of heat.
Be careful not to burn the garlic.
Toss in pasta, fresh parsley, and more olive oil. Serve with grated parmesan
Bruschetta
Toast bread. Rub a fresh clove of garlic across the toast, then put whatever you want on top.
Keep it plain with olive oil.
Sliced tomato.
Pesto.
Mashed broad beans.
It is amazing how much better it will taste with that small addition of garlic rubbed on the toast.
Aioli
This is garlic mayonnaise.
Crush 2 or more** cloves of garlic and salt in mortar using a pestle. It will form a paste. Transfer to bowl; add 3 egg yolks and mix. Slowly add 300 ml of extra virgin olive oil. Keep whisking so that a mayonnaise forms. It should be thick. Add salt and pepper.
Keeps in an airtight container for three days.
Perfect for lunch with
cold hard boiled eggs and salad
all seafood
coleslaw
on sandwiches
** 2 good sized cloves of garlic will be sufficient, however being the garlic enthusiasts that we all are, there is no reason you couldn't double that for something with extra zip! Perhaps try 2 cloves, the first time!
Soupe a l'ail
“I can't wait for the new crop to be harvested. This recipe celebrates Patrice Newell's fresh garlic in a delicious, traditional Provencale soup.” Tony Bilson
Garlic soup can be made in the same way as leek soup. However, garlic has some strange qualities. If you saute chopped garlic you will highlight those qualities that are most unattractive. If, however, you boil whole cloves of garlic you may eat it in copious quantities without any unpleasant effect. The following recipe is deceptively simple but the result is a soup of great finesse.
6 heads (bulbs) of garlic
1 litre chicken stock
300 ml chardonnay
75 ml madeira, sherry or brandy
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
6 peppercorns
salt
100 ml cream
2 egg yolks
Press down heavily on the heads of garlic with the palm of your hand thus breaking them into individual cloves. Discard the excess skin but do not peel the cloves. Wash them and place in a pot, cover with the stock, white wine, madeira, herbs and peppercorns. Bring to the boil, skim any froth from the top and simmer for one hour.
Pass the soup through a sieve, separating the pulp of the garlic from the skins. Ladle some of the soup repeatedly over the garlic to ensure that the sieve contains only the garlic skins at the end of pressing.
Bring the soup back to the boil, season to taste, remove from the flame, add the cream incorporated with the egg yolks and serve immediately.
