Here's an interesting question from reader Hannah, who is craving roasted garlic!
Help me! I am studying abroad (in Australia) and just moved in to a dorm. The one thing I am craving, because it's such a staple for me back home, is roasted garlic. I finish soups with it, spread it on sandwiches, add it to vinaigrettes and pastas. My only problem is that we have no oven in our tiny kitchen, just two burners and a microwave.
Does anyone out there know a way to roast garlic without an oven or toaster oven? There must be some scientific minds out there that know of a stove-top or microwave method. Please help! I know once I have roasted garlic, my homesickness will dissipate. Thank you.
Hannah... yes! You can roast garlic on the stovetop, and it also gives us a chance to mention one of our favorite tools yet again. A cast iron pot. In fact, that marmitout we mentioned yesterday would be the perfect cookware for making roast garlic on the stove.
We found good instructions for doing this here:
• Easy Stove-top Roasted Garlic Using Cast Iron
You put the garlic in a cast iron pot with a well-fitting lid and "bake" it over low heat on the stove for about an hour. This is actually a good energy-saving tip for those of us who love roasted garlic but don't want to heat up our ovens to bake it.
Has anyone tried this method?
(By the way, that crazy huge clove of garlic pictured above is from this post: Trader Joe's Pantry: One-Clove Garlic)
Related: Recipe: Roasted Garlic
(Image: Faith Durand)
I've done this in a stainless frying pan. You just break the bulb into separate cloves and put them in the pan over very low heat for a while (checking to make sure they don't burn).
view heather77's profile
Smaller quantities can be done on the stove top as well. Toast a few unpeeled cloves (you do a fairly large amount at a time... however big your pan is, you put one layer of cloves in it, leaving space around each clove to avoid steaming the garlic) uncovered in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat. Don't use any oil. Shake lightly every so often to keep the garlic from sticking to the pan, and to make sure each side of the garlic is exposed to the heat.
Toast until the cloves feel squishy. The paper covering on each clove will be somewhat burned on each side by the time this happens.
Let cool until you can handle the individual cloves, then squeeze the soft, toasted garlic out of the cloves. It tastes just like the real thing, but is a faster and a little more hands on.
view fib's profile
I saw Michael Chiarello roasted garlic for a burger on the oven by simmering peeled cloves in olive oil.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/roasted-garlic-burger-recipe2/index.html
It works pretty well and you're also left with a nice olive oil for dipping.
view asdf's profile
If you have a little dipper crock pot, you can wrap a head of garlic in foil and leave it in for a while, too.
view kestrel127's profile
If you're worried about burning the garlic (and/or want to turn the heat up a bit for whatever reason), you can also build a little stand for it out of aluminum foil... or rest it on a collapsible steamer inside of your covered pot.
view kitchenhacker's profile
Thanks for the advice! I will definitively try this.
Anyone knows a good way to store baked garlic? How long does it keep in general? (not that its usually a problem, I normally manage to eat it within the hour...)
view solveigpus's profile