Garlic breath

Monday, August 06, 2007

The garlic I harvested out of my garden a few weeks ago has been drying on my back porch.  Last night I took it off the hook and trimmed away the stalks and roots, and wiped away the excess dirt.  Success! I now have more garlic than I know what to do with!

These pretty purple-streaked cloves are the Purple Glazer garlic - it’s a mid-season, hardneck variety.  Originally from the Republic of Georgia, the garlic is supposed to be great for baking.  The cloves are not supposed to be hot, but you could have fooled me - I accidentally cut a garlic bulb in half with my shovel while I was digging up the bed, so I popped a clove in my mouth.  Uh, yeah, the garlic is super spicy fresh out of the ground.

This was my first attempt at growing garlic, and I must admit that it was a little thrill to discover the cloves did actually grow into bulbs.  Our soil is pretty clay-ish, so you just never know what’ll happen.  The bulbs didn’t get huge - my guess is the clay soil kept them from getting too big.  I do plan to grow garlic again, so the plan is to build a raised bed so I can get the soil just right.

Do you grow garlic in the Philadelphia area?  What are your favorite varieties?  While I love the look of Purple Glazer, I think I might try something else next year - perhaps Music, Ontario Purple Trillium, Chinese Pink, or Chet’s Italian.

So now I’ve got all this garlic - what to do with it all?  I dried the garlic, so I can at least rely on it to last for a little while.  But in thinking of longer term storage, what then?  There are several different preserving methods that work for garlic -

• Freezing - freezing garlic will produce a slightly mushy clove, but retains the flavor really well.  Place peeled whole or chopped cloves in a freezer bag and, well, freeze it.
• Drying - You can dry cloves that have been cut in half in a dehydrator or your oven (140 degrees for two hours and then 130 degrees until the garlic is totally dry and crisp).
• Oil and vinegar - cloves of garlic (both whole and chopped) can be preserved in both oil and vinegar.  In refrigerated vinegar, the cloves will keep for about four months.  For oil, it’s best to freeze it - otherwise, you run the risk of botulism.  The oil will keep for a few months.
• Salt - dry a few cloves and then give a whirl in a blender until the cloves are a fine powder.  Add four parts sea salt for each one part garlic powder and process for just a second or two to combine the two ingredients. Do not process the garlic salt too long because it will cake. Store the garlic salt in an airtight glass jar.
• Pickling - Loosely fill a glass jar with peeled garlic cloves. Add enough red or white wine vinegar to cover the garlic and then add about one tablespoon of sea salt per cup of vinegar. Dried (not fresh) herbs such as red pepper flakes, bay leaves, and oregano may be added to taste. Cover the jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake to distribute the salt and herbs. Refrigerator garlic pickles will keep almost indefinitely in the refrigerator, as long as the garlic remains submerged in the vinegar.

I wondered, though, whether garlic could be preserved in other ways.  What about roasted garlic?  The answer is yes: it can be frozen!  Just roast the heads, squeeze out the garlic and mash - spread thinly onto sheets of wax paper and freeze it.  I also found a great recipe for garlic and basil pesto that can be frozen for a few months.

However I end up preserving my garlic, one thing is for certain: I’m going to have garlic breath for months!