INGREDIENTS
This is what you need:
- healthy garlic
2014-2017
Growing your own garlic is quite easy. Just push garlic cloves in the ground in late autumn to early spring, and you can harvest the new bulbs in spring to early summer. You can also grow garlic in containers year-round, but the containers have to be large enough to allow for good root growth..
It is possible to grow garlic from seeds, but it takes several years before those plants are big enough to be harvested. Easier to just get garlic from the store and plant the cloves.
Garlic can be planted fairly close, with just enough spacing to allow the bulbs to fully mature. Garlic leaves are skinny and small compared to onions. (Pic1)
This is what you need:
For most people, garlic is too pungent to be eaten by itself. A few cloves can be cut small or crushed in salads. Garlic is often added to flavor cooked meals. It is practically a mandatory condiment with lamb.
Garlic is excreted in breath and sweat, causing people who eat garlic to have very noticeable garlic breath and body odor. That is the price you pay for eating well. :-)
Garlic loses a lot of its aroma when cooked or pickled. Use fresh garlic whenever possible, and add it late during the cooking process for the strongest flavor. Blanching garlic may reduce the very sharp taste of fresh garlic, making it more palatable.
Pic2: garlic front, leeks in the back
Garlic is a frequently-used condiment in my kitchen, not as often as I could, because Marielos doesn't care for garlic.
Blanching reduces the sharp taste but prolonged cooking destroys much of the garlic flavor. That is why garlic is best added fairly late in the cooking process.
Garlic can be used with any meat, but is practically mandatory with lamb.