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November 2009
 Coming soon... The second newsletter will include information about garlic and the natural health benefits including lowering blood pressure naturally. Also, a new recipes with garlic as the inspiration.
Thank you for your patience. Sincerely, Debbie Benson
Roasted Garlic
Roasted garlic is a delicious appetizer. Squeeze the pulp out of the cloves and spread on the bread of your liking or serve with bruschetta and/or tapenade. Roasted garlic is also excellent used in your baking. It is milder than raw garlic. In fact, raw garlic is two to four times stronger in flavor. Garlic becomes very mellow and easy to spread after cooking. Adapted from The Roasted Vegetable, by Andrea Chesman (The Harvard Common Press, 2002). Roasted garlic is everywhere these days—in crackers, cheese, salad dressings, and pasta sauces. This is where it all begins. You can multiply this recipe to make as much as you need. Each head will yield about one heaping tablespoon of puree. A great way to serve roasted garlic cloves is as an accompaniment to bread. Offer the roasted cloves in one small dish and a high-quality extra virgin olive oil in another. Diners can dip the bread in olive oil, then smear a clove of garlic on it. Heavenly! INGREDIENTS 1. Preheat the oven to 425F. 2. Remove the outer papery covering of the garlic. Slice off the top of the head so most of the cloves are exposed. Place on a square of aluminum foil for easy cleanup, or select the smallest baking dish you have. Drizzle the oil over the cloves. Fold the foil over the head to completely enclose it, or cover the baking dish with foil. 3. Roast for about 45 minutes, until the garlic is completely soft and lightly browned. 4. To serve, separate the head into individual cloves. Allow your guest to squeeze out the softened garlic as needed. Or squeeze out the cloves into a small serving dish. If you have leftovers, squeeze out the pulp into a small dish, cover with olive oil, and store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to one month.Over 1,000 published studies have investigated the medicinal properties of garlic. And today in the U.S., garlic ranks among the top five best selling herbs. A component in garlic called allicin is thought to be responsible for many of the reported health benefits.
In general with garlic, the finer the chop the stronger the taste.
Garlic also mellows the longer it is cooked. Garlic added at the end of cooking will give a stronger taste than garlic prepared the same way but added earlier. When buying garlic, make sure the heads are dry with plenty of paper covering. If you can see green shoots then the garlic is probably too old and/or wasn't dried properly. Garlic that is far too old will crumple under the slightest pressure from the fingers. Garlic grows under the ground in large, slightly off-white bulbs (or "heads") which are covered by a papery skin. Inside each bulb is anything from ten to twenty individual cloves which themselves have a pinkish skin. It's important to know the difference between bulbs and cloves when cooking! Garlic can be used in many ways - raw or cooked; whole, crushed or sliced. Raw garlic is stronger than cooked, minced garlic stronger than sliced. Roasted whole garlic has a totally different taste to crushed raw garlic. |
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