Here at O’Live A Little we LOVE garlic!!! So, in a salute to this most flavorful of ingredients, we are dedicating April to everything Garlic! 

In fact, the most popular flavor of Olive Oil we carry is garlic, and even though it is wonderful to drizzle on just about anything…. Nothing takes the place of using garlic right from the bulb.

Check out olivalittle.com, where we have selected some great recipes. 

And now we will impart a bit of Garlic 101 to all of you in hopes that you will take away a great tip or 2 and also find a new favorite recipe…

Preparing garlic the right way makes all the difference!

Depending on how it’s prepared, will affect the flavor.

Sliced

Slicing garlic is a good way to get “the essence of garlic,” without it being overwhelming. Slice it the long way on a mandoline and store it in olive oil (just for a day) if you are preparing ahead of time.

• When cooking, sweat them over very low heat “to bring out the perfume in it.”

• Keep in mind that with this preparation, you typically don’t want the garlic to get browned; When you start to smell the garlic, that’s when to add the other ingredients

• Burned garlic is acrid and can ruin a whole dish.

Minced

Chopped or minced garlic will provide the most classic garlic profile when you’re looking for pungent. Mince when you want the garlic to coat the other ingredients

• When mincing, keep in mind that you don’t want to overwork the cloves. To do by hand use the mandoline, then julienne it—cut it finely—into a mince.

• “We’re not chopping you know what out of it.” Don’t smash it on the cutting board and start randomly chopping. It will release too much of the oils and you will get random size pieces of garlic that will cook (and probably burn) unevenly. Try using very low heat—maybe even with the burner off—when cooking minced garlic.

Confited

The “most mild version” of garlic cookery will deliver an unexpected sweetness! Peel a ton of garlic, cooking it very, very slowly on the stovetop over low heat for hours in canola oil, chicken fat, or duck fat. (This technique is called confiting.) The cloves don’t pick up many colors with this method, but they become very soft, sweet, and delicate. Once cooked, Keep in the fridge in the oil. Smash them and throw them in cannellini bean dishes, add them to plates of pasta, or spread them on focaccia.

Roasted Garlic

It’s so easy. Roasted garlic lasts in the fridge and can be used with a variety of foods. Cut off the top of the head of garlic, add extra virgin olive oil, turn upside down, bake till soft so the cloves become golden brown and very plush. Flavor-wise, this will be“deeper, darker, more intense than confit.” The roasted garlic is delicious just about anywhere you can dream up... If it lasts that long because it’s hard not to just take the bread and slather it on and eat it all!