One for the garlic lovers ...

[XmisterIS]

Here's an experiment I tried in early October and it is a success!

I bought one large kilner jar, about 15 garlic bulbs and a bottle of vegetable oil.

I simple peeled all the cloves (takes about an hour), chopped them into chunks and put them in the jar, poured oil in right up to the brim, and snapped the lid on.

I then put a date label on it and stuffed it in the back of the fridge for three months.

I opened it up and tried a piece of garlic - not good at all to eat raw , very strong and pungent, unlike the commercially produced garlic in oil which is much smoother in flavour.

I've started using them for cooking though, and they are amazing! The oil has gone incredibly garlicky and a generous spoonful of garlic chunks in their oil fried first in the pan makes for a really delicious base for casseroles, stews, etc, etc. The flavour is completely different compared to simply frying fresh garlic in unflavoured oil.

 

[Hover Fly]

Better idea, find all the garlic you can, and burn it. Then threaten to thrash the cook within an inch of her life if she even has a dream about garlic. Horrible stuff.

 

[XmisterIS]

Lol! It's like marmite ... you either love it or hate it!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Mmmmm garlic oil, sounds like the chilli oil method - pizzas best friend.

Hover Fly you're in France and you don't like garlic!!!

 

[Ashtrayhead]

I always put my garlic in at the very end of cooking a sauce so that it just heats up gently.
I'll give this putting it in oil business a go though. How small or big are you chopping the garlic?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Garlic is the best thing ever. When I was first doing nights out in the lorry, I remember buying, among other foodstuffs, four cans of Guinness and a jar of pickled garlic. I ate and drank all of it ... by gum, it's a good job I was in that cab on my own that night.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Or make chimichuri sauce - parsley, chilli, and garlic, chopped up finely and left to steep in olive oil for a few months - the oil can be used for cooking or marinading, and the mix of herbs can be used as a condiment for meat and fish - it's rather delicious.

 

[User169]

1 bottle.
Load with peeled garlic cloves from three bulbs.
Fill with vodka.
Wait 2/3 months.
Consume vodka.

 

[Cubist]

...add a touch of chilli powder!

Or simply add a handfulof bruised red chillis to a bottle of vodka,leave for a couple of months etc etc

 

[zacklaws]

Or simply add a handfulof bruised red chillis to a bottle of vodka,leave for a couple of months etc etc

After visiting Mexico, the landlord in one of my locals made up a concoction like this but used tequila, no body would try it but me, my whole face was burning eventually as it spread from my mouth to all around my face after drinking a glass full.

 

[Keith Oates]

Another good mixture is to get either dried Apricots or Prunes and put them in a jar with either Brandy or Gin, then leave to soak for 4 months or more. They make exciting eating at a party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kirstie]

Another good mixture is to get either dried Apricots or Prunes and put them in a jar with either Brandy or Gin, then leave to soak for 4 months or more. They make exciting eating at a party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exciting in the sense that they cause your guests to be hammered and have diahorrea simultaneously? Wow. That must have been one hell of a party...!

 

[wafflycat]

You need to be very, very careful when making flavoured oils with fresh ingredients, if those & the oil is not heated up to at least 120C. If you don't do this you retain water in the ingredients and risk Botulism (Clostridium botulinum). If you don't heat the ingredients & oil first, but simply use cool/cold ingredients & oil, you should not keep it for longer than a week in the fridge.

 

[Alan Frame]

You need some "Snoggable Garlic"...delicious but expensive.

I've tried to find a recipe but it seems to be a closely guarded secret.

 

[ASC1951]

...If you don't do this you retain water in the ingredients and risk Botulism (Clostridium botulinum)....

The risk is not zero, but it is absolutely tiny. It's far more important, for instance, to wash chopping boards and knives after handling raw chicken.

My favourite 'unusual' way of using garlic is to dry roast a whole bulb when I have the oven on for something with baked spuds or roasted peppers. It works with an onion studded with cloves, too. You have to leave them unpeeled otherwise they dry out too much.