How 'bout you? Have you thought about what you're going to make/do/eat to celebrate the stinking rose? Well, if not -- no worries. There's still time. Start searching out those glorious garlic recipes, tinctures, prose, and other inspiration and figure out how you want to celebrate! And you know what? I'd really love it if you'd drop by here to share your creation. I've always meant to get a big garlicky gathering started for this day, and this is the year. For all of the details (there's not many, actually), check out the bottom of this post. But until then, please link up some of your older garlic posts so that perhaps others can find a new recipe to make this year!
I hope to see you wearing your garlic braids proud this year! Until then...I'll share with you one of my favorite things. One of the simplest, yet most additive things in the world. Roasted Garlic. Sure, there's a number of ways to do it, but this is the whole-head method. More on another day...
Roasted Garlic (whole heads)
by
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Keywords: roast condiment preserving garlic
Ingredients (4 heads)
- 4 whole heads garlic
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 2 Tbs. water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325° F.
Slice the top of the heads of garlic, ~½" down. You just want the tips cut off and the "meat" exposed. Gently remove the outer papery skin from the sides of the heads. Set in a clay (or other ovenproof) dish, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil and water. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for ~1 hour. Uncover and spoon any of the liquid from the bottom of the dish on top of the heads of garlic. Continue baking, uncovered, for another 15 minutes.
Will keep refrigerated for about one week.
This recipe can be easily halved, doubled, tripled, etc. If you have a lot of heads roasting at once, you may need to add another more cooking time. Check after 1 hour and if not golden and soft, cook another 15 minutes before spooning liquid over garlic.
Squeeze out and eat the soft garlic with a loaf of crusty bread. Scatter it on top of a round of brie and drizzle with olive oil before heating in the oven for a while. Use it in soup. Smoosh it between the skin and meat of a chicken. Use it as an unexpected twist in ice cream or cake. The possibilities are enless. I like eating it alone, too.
Some people like to season with salt and pepper before roasting. If you want to...knock yourself out. I've also added a bit of white wine vinegar while roasting. I didn't notice any difference in the end product, though. Throw some fresh thyme sprigs (or other herbs) in the pan, if you like.
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| "Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers" image by Les Blank (Chez Panisse Garlic Festival 1980) |
How to participate in National Garlic Day (NGD) 2012:
1. Write a post celebrating/sharing GARLIC. (Anything goes - writing and recipe? Yes! Photos only? Of course! An ode to garlic...or perhaps a sonnet? Bring it on! An informational post about the health benefits of garlic? Indeed!)
2. Post it on your blog with a link back to THIS post on Thursday, April 19th (that's NGD!). Use of the logo is optional, but always appreciated.
3. Email your entries to me at: girlichef @ yahoo . com and include:
~Your name
~The name of your blog
~Link to the post you're submitting
~Attach a photo of any size (or I will just pull one if you don't feel like attaching)
~Indicate "National Garlic Day 2012 submission" in the subject line
4. Please have all submissions in by midnight wherever you are on April 19th. Anybody is welcome to submit, even if you're a different country.
*I will round up all of the Garlicky posts that you submit a couple of days or so following this deadline.*
*Update 4/20/12: Well, the garlicky fun didn't take off as well as I'd hoped. Boo. I didn't really get enough submissions to fill a round-up, so instead I thought I would just add the 4 awesome ones I did receive to this post. Thanks so much to Tina, Karen, and Danielle for joining me in honoring garlic on its day. Hopefully next year we can drum up some more participants! But until then...
Tina from Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor did an awesome post filled with fun informational tidbits about garlic, garlic quotes, and food infused with garlic such as Crispy Chicken Thighs with Buttery Dutch Potatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, and Garlic. So much fun!
Karen from Karen Cooks definitely knows the way to my heart...roasty toasty grilled garlic combined with creamy avocado and fresh, sweet pineapple. Oh yeah. That's the way. I would steal off with this bowl of Grilled Garlic & Pineapple Guacamole and finish it all by myself. Just sayin'...
You can bet your bottom dollar that I will be trying this amazing Garlic Basil Infused Vodka that Danielle from Cooking for my Peace of Mind nurtured for 4 days before NGD in order to celebrate. And then I'll mix myself up one of the pungent Vampire's Hell Day Martini's that she made and top it off with a big, fat garlic-stuffed olive. Be warned vampires, be warned.
And I decided I needed - yes needed - to use garlic in a dessert. I wanted to finish on a gloriously garlicky note. Mission accomplished with this rustic and beautiful Apple Spice Cake w/ Roasted Garlic topped off with an addictive Honey-Poached Garlic Sauce. Woot!
Thanks again ladies for your amazing garlic-laden posts - you totally rock!
