Making Garlic Paste

Andy

I have a garlic press with a "spiky" side that cleans the little holes in the press. Though i like my zyless better, i seem to get better leverage, and it has a bigger bowl. And merely soaking it in hot water for 5 minutes is enough to loosen the garlic and all that is then required is to rinse it in hot running water.

I just don't have the time to read every single post, so i have to ask, no one mentioned roasted garlic yet?

It "mashes" with a fork very easily and while there is some diminution in strength of flavor i actually prefer it to raw garlic. Mix with butter or oil if desired.

Spread it on buttered bread and toast it in the oven, use it for a rich deep flavor in cooked foods.

With raw garlic in cooked foods, "if you can tell its there you have used too much." Lydia Biannichi (sp?) of Lydia's Kitchen t.v. program.

I used to be one of those people that would use 5 - 8 cloves of garlic in a recipe that called for 1 - 2 until one day i was short of garlic and only had a couple of cloves left. I used, the 2 cloves to much better, tastier effect than the over abundance i would have normally used.

Though i will still roast a chicken with its cavity stuffed full of garlic cloves, this results in baked garlic that is removed from the chicken and used for other purposes. I occasionaly stew a buch of peeled garlic cloves in just enough chicken stock to cover and simmer till the stock is absorbed-evaporated, makes a nice addition to the garlic flavour.

Kept in a sealed, air tight container, it lasts longer than i can keep it around.

I used to dismiss the idea of rubbing a container with a cut clove of garlic as an affectation, until i tried it on one of my wooden salad bowels, now a days i rub both the individual serving salad bowels and the larger wooden bowl that holds the salad with the cut garlic. It should go with out saying, soap never touches my wooden salad bowls. --- JL