Personally, we can't get enough garlic. If the recipe calls for a clove or two, we're bound to put in three or four. But not everyone has the same opinion and not every dish needs the same kind of garlic flavor. Here's how to change its flavor and intensity in any dish you make!
One of the things we love about garlic is its versatility. Depending on how you cut it or cook it, garlic can be sweet and smoky, sharp and pungent, or simply mellow.
• More or Less - Of course, simply adding a few more cloves is bound to increase the garlic factor in any dish. By that same token, if you'd like a more subtle flavor, cut the amount of garlic back to just a single small clove. You're not going to throw off anything major in the recipe by doing so.
• Whole or Minced - Whole garlic will give dishes a soft background garlic flavor while chopped or minced garlic will be more spicy, pungent, and pervasive. You can range across this spectrum by merely crushing the garlic cloves lightly, giving them a few quick chops, chopping them more finely, and so on.
•Slow or Quick Cooking - Slow cooking over low heat caramelizes garlic and gives both it and your dish a sweet, mellow flavor. This can happen in the oven, as with roasting garlic whole, or when garlic is used in a long-cooked braise. On the flip side, sautéing garlic quickly in a stir fry or sauce keeps the garlic flavor fresh and sharp.
Combine these three factors and you can come up with a whole range of cooking methods and flavors. A lot of minced, quickly cooked garlic will give your dish a strong, bold garlic flavor while a few whole cloves of slowly cooked garlic will add just a sweet hint.
How intense do you like your garlic?
Related: Garlic Powder: Yay or Nay?
(Image: Flickr member Muffet licensed under Creative Commons)
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Comments (10)
We just tried a dish where the garlic was boiled for about 20 minutes, drained, and then added to the dish (a Mexican shrimp appetizer). It was just perfect, good flavor but no harshness. I guess it would be like roasting it first.
I like garlic pretty much any way. However, I usually just slice the whole cloves, because I'm too lazy to mince. I also like to pulverize the cloves with some sea salt to add to dips and dressings.
In the right places, it can also be nice to add some minced garlic very close to the end of cooking, especially in a moist dish where this guarantees that this addition of garlic will never get much above the boiling point, preserving much of the snap of the fresh garlic. This can be in addition to garlic added earlier in the dish which would provide another kind of flavor.
For some people, myself included, garlic is a great flavor, but it causes a lot of indigestion and stomachaches. I find that if I pour boiling water over minced garlic before adding it to hummus or salad dressings, for example, that I have far fewer issues. Sauteeing it on the stove, or in olive oil in the microwave if you're lazy, also helps.
I love garlic! We've had a pretty hot relationship for a long time.
I don't care for raw garlic, but it always seems like a hassle to dirty up a pan to cook it (or heat up the oven) if I am just adding it something. I sometimes toss a whole garlic clove into the pasta water a couple of minutes before the pasta is done. The garlic softens and gets mellower, without much effort.
I've got a question for you garlic lovers: have you heard that chopped or minced garlic should "hang out" on the cutting board for 10 mins before being cooked so as to naturally increase it's nutrient content by letting it reacting to oxygen? Thanks!
Can't get enough. I love to smear a coupe of roasted bulbs over pizza in place of sauce when I make it. Fabulous!
@peuple, never heard that one, and have my doubts about it. My husband has different garlic tolerance (stomach issue, not taste) than me, so I have been experimenting with tossing the whole bulbs in a ramekin of water and microwaving them for a minute before mincing. Seems to take the edge off for him, still tastes good, and is much faster than roasting so if I didn't plan ahead no problem.
I've adopted Dorie Greenspan's recommendation to halve the cloves then removing the sprout to reduce the harsh garlic flavor.