Look what I’ve got ...
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bugger for the black garlic, which makes me cool because I recently read that black garlic is
“the latest ‘it’ ingredient in chef's kitchens.”
“the latest ‘it’ ingredient in chef's kitchens.”
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Why not pin this to refer to later!
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I have already experimented with black garlic in loads of dishes and often had to mash the cloves to get the desired result but no need for that any more – this smooth unctuous paste (which smells divine when you open the jar) is so flippin’ useful.
Black garlic hardly tastes of garlic at all, maybe vaguely reminiscent, that’s all. It has a deep, rich, sweet molasses/balsamic flavour which goes well with both sweet and savoury ingredients, in fact I feel the possibilities are almost endless so watch this space!
Here are my ideas – so far ...
Black Garlic Oil
Whisk a little of the paste into olive oil, it won’t emulsify but it still works, and use thus ...
~ brush around the naked edge of pizza before baking.
~ or onto hot fresh out the oven focaccia.
~ toss with bits of bread to make croutons. (Please, please do make you own croutons – it’s ridiculously easy and absolutely pointless buying them!)
~ roast potatoes.
~ or onto hot fresh out the oven focaccia.
~ toss with bits of bread to make croutons. (Please, please do make you own croutons – it’s ridiculously easy and absolutely pointless buying them!)
~ roast potatoes.
~ drizzle on salads, soups, meat, fish, cheese or whatever you fancy.
Black Garlic Butter
Cream together soft butter and black garlic paste to taste (crumbled blue cheese and/or coarsely ground black pepper are both good additions to this) and you might as well make plenty and store it, here's a good way ...
~ Spread a square of clingfilm or baking parchment onto the counter.
~ Scrape the soft and tasty butter into sausage about 30mm from and parallel to one edge.
~ Lift that edge and use the film or parchment to roll and shape the butter into a cylinder.
~ When satisfied roll the butter in the rest of the clingfilm and twist the ends to secure.
~ Chill or freeze until needed.
~ Use a hot knife to slice cold or frozen butters.
~ Scrape the soft and tasty butter into sausage about 30mm from and parallel to one edge.
~ Lift that edge and use the film or parchment to roll and shape the butter into a cylinder.
~ When satisfied roll the butter in the rest of the clingfilm and twist the ends to secure.
~ Chill or freeze until needed.
~ Use a hot knife to slice cold or frozen butters.
Use Black Garlic Butter to ...
~ make fabulous garlic bread.
~ add to mashed potatoes – particularly good with steak
~ swirl a little on top of a bowl of mushroom (or other) soup
~ dollop into baked potato
~ sauté mushrooms
~ top a steak with a slice or two of the chilled butter, or, even better ...
~ after pan frying steak set the meat aside somewhere warm to relax, add a splash of red wine, beef stock or even water to the pan and boil, scraping the pan to dissolve any meaty juices, and when there is just a tablespoon of sauce left quickly stir in a knob of the butter till emulsified and pour it over the steak.
~ enrich scrambled eggs. You know when you are scrambling eggs and they are just about perfect? Immediately they reach this point stir in some cold butter (in this case black garlic butter) which will not only enrich the eggs but will stop them cooking any further and keep them perfect.
~ the taste of black garlic goes surprisingly well with eggs so try spreading it on toast for poached eggs or perhaps onto your soldiers!
~ etc.
~ add to mashed potatoes – particularly good with steak
~ swirl a little on top of a bowl of mushroom (or other) soup
~ dollop into baked potato
~ sauté mushrooms
~ top a steak with a slice or two of the chilled butter, or, even better ...
~ after pan frying steak set the meat aside somewhere warm to relax, add a splash of red wine, beef stock or even water to the pan and boil, scraping the pan to dissolve any meaty juices, and when there is just a tablespoon of sauce left quickly stir in a knob of the butter till emulsified and pour it over the steak.
~ enrich scrambled eggs. You know when you are scrambling eggs and they are just about perfect? Immediately they reach this point stir in some cold butter (in this case black garlic butter) which will not only enrich the eggs but will stop them cooking any further and keep them perfect.
~ the taste of black garlic goes surprisingly well with eggs so try spreading it on toast for poached eggs or perhaps onto your soldiers!
~ etc.
Other Ideas for Black Garlic ...
~ Stir into mayonnaise – makes for a great potato salad.
~ Mix with mixture of cheese scraps for an interesting potted cheese.
~ Shake into vinaigrette - this is a good marinade for beef or duck.
~ Add to hummus and other bean dips.
~ Toss into freshly cooked tagliatelle or similar not too substantial pasta, together with crumbled blue cheese, lots of freshly ground black pepper and just a splash of the pasta cooking water to make it saucy.
Add to Alfredo Sauce – lovely easy Alfredo recipe here.
Just stir a little black garlic paste, to taste, through the sauce. Mushrooms (sautéed in black garlic butter if you have some) are a good addition to this and it is equally delicious on pasta or as a sauce for chicken, for instance, or just with bread or toast for a gorgeous lunch.
~ Mix with mixture of cheese scraps for an interesting potted cheese.
~ Shake into vinaigrette - this is a good marinade for beef or duck.
~ Add to hummus and other bean dips.
~ Toss into freshly cooked tagliatelle or similar not too substantial pasta, together with crumbled blue cheese, lots of freshly ground black pepper and just a splash of the pasta cooking water to make it saucy.
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| Another one for Pinterest! |
Add to Alfredo Sauce – lovely easy Alfredo recipe here.
Just stir a little black garlic paste, to taste, through the sauce. Mushrooms (sautéed in black garlic butter if you have some) are a good addition to this and it is equally delicious on pasta or as a sauce for chicken, for instance, or just with bread or toast for a gorgeous lunch.
~ Stir a little Black Garlic Alfredo through mushroom risotto.
Black Garlic Ice Cream
Black garlic is sweet and molasses-ish so a while ago I experimented with Black Garlic Ice Cream and it was excellent. At the time I had to purée the garlic cloves with the cream but now this won’t be necessary.
Good News about Black Garlic!
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| Pinterest? |
4 comments:
Well I'm obviously not at all cool, because I still haven't tried black garlic. AND now I've been leap frogged by black garlic paste in a jar!
I'm not cool yet, but I soon will be, just placed an order!
I'm another who hasn't even tried black garlic yet and I love garlic. I will have to give it a go, this looks like a wonderful thing to have on standby.
I hope you love it as much as I do!
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