Roasted Garlic

I first learned that I loved roasted garlic when I made that Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans recipe. Following that up with Roasted Garlic and New Potatoes confirmed the love. Getting ready to make some potato soup, a sudden realization came on: the soup should have roasted garlic. And thus I go forth.

Roasted Garlic

adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

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4 garlic bulbs, halved

olive oil

salt

fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Rub the garlic bulbs to loosen the outermost papers, leaving the cloves encased in paper.

The bulbs before papery skins removed.

Halve the bulbs. Place the bulb halves on a baking sheet.

Drizzle the bulbs with oil and season to taste with salt and pepper, tossing to coat.

Cover with foil and bake the garlic for 45 minutes. Remove the foil.

Bake another 30 minutes until garlic is completely soft.

Man, the aroma of garlic roasting is mind-boggling as you can smell the hotness become sweet. The soft cloves are so butter-like in texture that it was nearly impossible to stop myself from smearing them on toast and consuming all four bulbs while standing there in the kitchen. Oh hey, that's how I polished off those previously-mentioned potatoes and green beans -- standing in my kitchen! Yep, roasted garlic is simply dreamy.

Cost:

• garlic: $1.50

Here's an excerpt about garlic "Use in cooking" from my Larousse Gastronomique:

The bulbs must be thoroughly dry. They can be stored in a cold place (from -0.5 C to +1 C, 31-34 F) or at a moderate temperature (18 C, 64 F), either laid out flat or hanging in bunches to improve aeration. If spots appear on them or the cloves become soft, the garlic is no longer usable. Generally speaking, white garlic keeps for about six months, pink garlic for nearly a year. 

Add garlic at the end of the cooking time, as it introduces a bitter flavour if fried for too long.

I used to buy containers of minced garlic, which is offered at a really great price and keeps for a very long time in the fridge. But I've come to appreciate smashing the cloves with the flat side of my santoku knife* and have satisfaction in finding the paper coming off with great ease. Mincing the whole cloves forces me to execute knife skills which I could always practice for improvement. Anyway, I was just going to tell you that I keep my bulbs in a bowl in the dark of my pantry at room temperature but until now didn't know how to tell when it was bad. I simply guessed that if it was a month or two old it was "too" old. How do you keep yours and how long do you keep it?

*Place flat edge of wide knife on clove. While holding knife steady, bring heel of your other hand down forcefully on knife, flattening clove slightly and breaking the garlic skin. The skin should peel off in it's entirety with ease. I'm right-handed and tend to hold the knife in my left and smashing with my right -- if that helps.

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