Tag: garlic

Romesco Sauce

Romesco Sauce

Romesco doubles as a dip for veggies and a sauce for meats and poultry. Smoked paprika is a must for this recipe.

Romesco Sauce
Author: Renee Shelton
Ingredients
  • 1 cup cubed baguette 1 inch cubes, rounded cup
  • 1/3 cup sliced blanched almonds
  • 4 garlic cloves chopped
  • Canola oil for toasting nuts
  • 1 pound Roma tomatoes concasse
  • 1 Anaheim chile roasted, skinned and seeded
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon smoked paprika no substitutions for plain
  • 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
  1. Add a couple of tablespoons of canola to a large, hot frying pan, and add in the almonds. Toss around until browned. Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
  2. Add the toasted almonds and garlic, along with any oil still left in the pan, to the bowl of a food processor. Add in the rest of the ingredients, beginning with 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Blend until desired consistency, adding in additional red wine vinegar if needed if the mixture is too thick.
  3. Serve.
Black Garlic: Black Gold in a Garlic Wrapper

Black Garlic: Black Gold in a Garlic Wrapper

Black Garlic | Cultivatetoplate.com

If you’ve never tasted black garlic, then this description from Black Garlic, Ltd., a manufacturer of this ‘fermented’ favorite item, will get you sitting up:

Black garlic is sweet meets savory, a perfect mix of molasses-like richness and tangy garlic undertones. It has a tender, almost jelly-like texture with a melt-in-your-mouth consistency similar to a soft dried fruit…It’s as delicious as it is unique.

Think of black garlic’s flavor being roasted garlic times a hundred. Here is how this ‘black gold’ is made, and how to use it.

Black Garlic: What Is It?

Long used in Japan and Korea, black garlic is a whole bulb of garlic slowly heated over a period of time to achieve its dark appearance and caramel-like texture. No additives, preservatives, or colorants are used to achieve the deep color, and the resulting garlic is often used as a health supplement due to its high levels of antioxidants.

The deep, rich color of the garlic comes from the sugars being drawn out over a long period of aging, the actual sugar conversion under a heat cure and humidity rather than actual fermentation.

Process of fermentation. Image courtesy Organic Black Garlic, www.organicblackgarlic.sg.
Process of fermentation. Image courtesy Organic Black Garlic, www.organicblackgarlic.sg.

How to Use Black Garlic

The cloves can be eaten by themselves without the harsh effects of plain garlic – no strong odors, no biting flavors, none of the spicy punch that fresh garlic packs. Black garlic is often associated with the term ‘umami,’ with its savory flavor and satisfying mouthfeel. The flavor can be described as having molasses, balsamic vinegar, and brown sugar notes.

Black garlic has a smooth and soft texture, and because of its rich and subtle flavor, can be stirred into any recipe or eaten all by itself. Just peel, chop, and use. Since the flavor is so mellow, it is also used in desserts.

Black Garlic Tapanade Recipe

Try this recipe, courtesy Frieda’s, Inc.

 

Black Garlic Tapanade
Author: Renee Shelton
Ingredients
  • 2 cloves of peeled black garlic
  • 3/4 cup of sliced black olives
  • 1 small tin of anchovies drained
  • 1 teaspoon of capers
  • Juice of a small lemon
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Black pepper
  • Fresh basil leaves
  • Ciabatta bread – warmed in the oven
Instructions
  1. Place all the black garlic, olives, anchovies, capers, and the lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor.
  2. Process while streaming in the olive oil, scraping down the sides as needed. Blend to desired consistency.
  3. Season with pepper to taste.
  4. Spread on sliced, warmed ciabatta bread and garnished with basil leaves.
Recipe Notes

Adapted from Frieda's, Inc.