Mmmmm, Garlic! Garlic is my friend.
Someday, I'll go to an honest-to-goodness culinary school so I don't have to feel ridiculous for just now learning things like the easiest way to slice garlic. Until then, here's what I've gathered from watching professional chefs when I was supposed to be out waiting tables, and from you tube videos, and from trial and error:
First off, a link for you to 2 of my favorite ways to prepare garlic, ROASTED GARLIC and GARLIC BUTTER, plus something new to me: garlic-infused olive oil. Because she has multiple pictures, and I'm not reinventing the wheel here. :)
MINCING: bamboo cutting boards work best, but if you don't have one, just make sure your cutting board has some give to it; the garlic will keep trying to run away from the knife on a sleek surface. Use a rocking motion with a chef knife for this: keep the knife on the board and just keep rocking it back and forth over the garlic.
SLICING: Did you know that a paring knife is WAAAY easier to use for slicing garlic than a chef knife? After 7 years of watching chefs up close, I always felt a bit inadequate for not being able to slice garlic very quickly. But then I tried a paring knife randomly once, and oh-my-goodness was it so very much easier!
GARLIC POWDER: useful for adding extra flavor to soups and other dishes where you want a hint of garlic but don't want to have actual pieces of garlic. Proceed with caution, though - it's strong!
GARLIC SALT: don't. That's all I have to say about that: don't. Use real garlic and use real salt. Separately. Don't try to kill 2 birds with one stone, especially with something like garlic.
No comments:
Post a Comment