I cook with a lot of garlic. Like, a LOT of garlic. This, of course, has everything to do with El Rey de Ajo and his (possibly excessive) garlic plantings.
Not that A. would ever think any quantity of garlic is excessive.
Luckily, everyone in this house likes garlic.
I do a lot of chopping and pressing of garlic cloves, of course. However, with the quantity of garlic that we have on hand, I'm really dealing with many heads of garlic, rather than just individual cloves.
This is where roasting comes in.
I roast whole heads of garlic somewhat frequently, especially when I'm making Finny's sauce. That sauce involves an entire head of garlic roasted with the tomatoes, right on the same pan. The original recipe calls for cutting off the top of the head of garlic, and then wrapping the whole thing in aluminum foil for roasting. When the garlic is roasted, you then squeeze the garlic out of the skins.
This is how I always did it, because Finny told me to. And it works well.
The only issue I had--and this is really just me and my own issue, I suspect--is the aluminum foil. I dislike having to use anything only once, even if it's just a small piece of aluminum foil. Because after I bake the garlic, I have to just throw that aluminum foil away. Horrors.
I told you it was just my issue.
And then, one time this summer when I had run out of aluminum foil and really needed to roast some tomatoes to get them out of the kitchen, I decided to try doing it without the foil. Because I wasn't wrapping them in anything, I decided not to cut the tops off, figuring the intact skin would act as the wrapper.
It does. And this method works.
The cloves are somewhat drier and firmer when roasted this way, so they don't squish out of the skins like they do when the garlic is wrapped up in foil. Instead, the skin just pulls away and the cloves come out intact, which is much less messy.
Maybe this method wouldn't be the best if you want a paste for smearing on bread or something, but for dropping in a food processor to make tomato sauce, it doesn't matter. Or for eating them whole, which we definitely do.
So there you go: Roasted garlic without throwing away aluminum foil. Just doing our little part to save the Earth. And not buy more aluminum foil.
9 comments:
Wow! You guys eat them whole!?!
Linda
I need to finish my comment...sounded like you eat them whole all at one time.
Linda
I imagine that if you want it smooshy then you could also just put it in a baking dish that has a lid. (I like to imagine a lot when I cook-- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)
Linda: Yeah, we eat whole CLOVES at a time. :-) Although we have been known to eat a whole head of roasted garlic at once if it's small.
Jody: You certainly can. I do that with things like pot roast. I don't have a small oven dish with a lid, though, for doing just the garlic. But if you do, it will definitely work to use just a covered baking dish.
FWIW, I reuse my aluminum foil. A single box lasts me years because like you I don't like using it. However once in a while it has its use. I just fold it up and pop it in the freezer. I reuse any plastic bags we may have (crackers, bread, cereal etc) to corral them. If I am careful I get several uses out of a piece. I do the same for parchment paper.
Love roasted garlic! So much so I will roast 2-4lbs at a time. Learned my lesson many years ago. I roast that much or more outdoors because I want to actually be able to sleep in my house over the next few days! I have a make-do summer kitchen. If freezing the leftovers I triple bag with good freezer ziplocs (that I reuse a gazillion times) or canning jars so the freezer won't stink.
No vampires around your house!
Thanks for the reminder to get out the ceramic garlic roaster that lurks in the pantry. Since I've stocked up on baking potatoes, it occurs to me that roasting garlic when I bake a potato will allow me to garlic-up my baked potato with sour cream. Seems like a plan.
I guess what I really was questioning is, do you eat the whole head at a time, but you have cleared that up for me.
Linda
A. would definitely be BFF with my boyfriend: in his opinion no dish is complete without garlic, preferably both in fresh and powder form. Also re the alu foil: acid attacks the protective oxide layer on aluminium so I would avoid contact with tomatoes altogether... or any other acid dish.
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