All About Garlic
Seasonality: Fresh Garlic appears in Iowa in July. Cured garlic will stay good for months after that.
Nutrition Highlights: Garlic provides a healthy, low-calorie way to add lots of flavor to almost any savory dish.
Preservation/storage: Cured garlic lasts for months in cool, dark locations. You can also can and freeze garlic, among other methods.
07/31/2020
If you’ve been getting your garlic fix with garlic scapes or herbaceous (and invasive!) garlic mustard this summer, you’ll be excited to know that garlic is here! You can buy fresh cloves, right out of the ground, packed with pungent flavor from many local farmers (including through the Online Farmers Market).
While garlic powder, salt, puree and other seasonings provide tasty and easy ways to add flavor to any dish, the flavorful punch of real garlic cannot compare. A local clove comes with additional freshness and taste. If you’ve never cooked with fresh garlic before, we challenge you to pick some local garlic up this week and try swapping it into a classic favorite recipe.
Fresh Garlic Serving Suggestion
Garlic bread is an staple side dish, quick to throw together with a little butter or oil and any variety of garlic. While sprinkling garlic powder onto buttery bread is extremely easy, using the real deal isn’t much harder.
The quantity of garlic you use will depend on how many slices you are making and how big the cloves are. In general, one mid-size clove per full-sized slice of bread will do. If you’re using very small slices of a long, skinny baguette or very big cloves from a monstrous head of garlic, adjust as you see fit! If you’re someone who loves a lot of garlic, it can’t hurt to use more than you might think.
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Image from flickr. Preheat your oven to about 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Peel your garlic. This can be a pesky task, but there are tricks to make it easier. Some people like to put the loose cloves in a sealed jar and shake it for about 30 seconds to loosen the peels. Chopping off both ends of the clove can also make it easier to peel off the papery skin.
- Chop, mince or puree your garlic. While a garlic press makes this especially simple, it doesn’t have to be scary. Watch this video to learn how to chop like pro chef Jamie Oliver. This trick from The Kitchn uses a fork to mince garlic.
- Mix your garlic with melted butter and/or olive oil. While some recipes call for a whole cup per 4 cloves of garlic (and buttery bread certainly is delicious), as long as you have enough liquid to spread nicely over the bread, you don’t need quite so much if you’re looking for a somewhat lighter garlic bread.
- Spread the concoction over your bread slices. The crustier the better! Sprinkle with salt and pepper, as well as Parmesan cheese and parsley if desired.
- Bake until crispy and golden. For full-sized slices, this could be about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!