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2torial #0857:
Learn2 Prepare
Garlic
For the sweet smell of garlicky
success...
There's nothing as delicious as a home-cooked
Italian meal complete with pasta, fresh tomato
sauce and garlic bread. Except maybe a pungent Thai
stirfry with snow peas, red chilies, holy basil and
garlic. Or perhaps a fiery Indian curry with cumin,
coriander, cayenne, and garlic. You get the
idea--garlic is good. And it's been hailed
as a health tonic by traditional healers for
centuries, now with the backing of modern medical
research.
Unfortunately, peeling the cloves of garlic
required to give those dishes their zing is the
sort of culinary chore that can be tiresome for
even an experienced cook. And the same is true for
crushing and mincing garlic.
But it doesn't have to be that way: here are
some simple instructions which should help any
amateur chef overcome their fear of garlic--unless,
of course, they're a vampire.
You should remove all of your garlic cloves from
the head before starting. Crushing garlic is
recommended if you want a stronger garlic
flavor--this releases more of the pungent flavor
and natural juices of garlic. Marinades and foods
such as Caesar salad and shrimp scampi demand
crushed garlic.
Garlic chopped into slices or larger pieces will
usually add a light flavor to your dish. It's less
likely to dissolve or soften, so you won't get as
strong a garlic flavor as you will with crushed
garlic.
A happy medium could be mincing garlic which is
less pungent than crushed garlic, but still adds
great flavor for recipes that require stir-frying
or sauteeing.
Since minced garlic is very finely chopped into
small cubical pieces, it will dissolve more easily
when cooking. In stir-fry dishes especially, minced
garlic adds a great deal of flavor to the cooking
oil used in the frying pan.
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