Aromatic
Garlic
Also called garlic clove
A bulb of cloves under papery skin. Raw it is a sulphur punch; cooked slowly it turns sweet; burnt it ruins the oil. One clove is not a teaspoon of jarred paste.
Origin
From Central Asia, farmed for thousands of years along the Silk Road and around the Mediterranean.
Flavour
Hot and metallic when raw, especially if crushed. Gentle heat makes it sweet. Black garlic is a slow-aged sweet paste, not a fresh substitute.
How to use it
Crush or pound when you want the juice in a marinade or a Korean stew; slice for sofrito and paella so it perfumes the oil without disappearing; leave cloves whole in a braise so they go soft and mild. Add garlic after onion has a head start, or after the pan is hot but not smoking — it burns in seconds in a dry wok. In mapo tofu, garlic and ginger hit the oil together once the paste has already stained it. Jarred minced garlic is fine in a weeknight marinade and obvious in a raw aioli.
Storage
Whole bulbs in a cool, dry, ventilated place — not the fridge, where they sprout.
Recipes using it
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