Garlic grows in a bulb containing many separate cloves. The cloves are covered in a paper thin skin that is removed and discarded before use.
Preparation
Garlic can be used both cooked and raw. It can be roasted or sauteed. If there is a green sprout in the center of your garlic clove, simply remove it and continue.
Garlic has a very strong odor due to sulfur compounds, but that is what makes it so good for us. Eating garlic with fresh parsley may reduce any mouth odor, or better yet, share garlic with the people around you and it won’t matter! A tip for removing the garlic smell from hands or cutting boards is a fresh lemon. Simply cut a lemon in half and rub it all over the area, then wash with soap and water as usual.
A fun and helpful tool to use in the kitchen is a garlic press, worth the investment, in our opinion.
Varieties
There are many varieties of garlic, the most popular are white garlic, pink garlic, and giant or elephant garlic.
Storage
Garlic stores very well and likes the dark. It will remain plump on your counter top for a couple of months, but if you place it in the refrigerator it will keep for up to 7 months! (Jess keeps her bulbs in a cool dark area in news paper, unless it’s the summer garlic with long stems, in which case the stems are loosely braided and the garlic hung by the stems in the pantry closet. Bulbs are then snipped off as needed.)
Nutrition
Vitamin C, selenium, potassium, and calcium
Garlic has been valued as a health protector for thousands of years, and for good reason! Modern medicine has shown that garlic has a powerful effect at boosting the immune system, aids in cardiovascular health, and fighting cancer.
That’s right my Springdell friends, today we caramelize. Cut the whole head of garlic and make sure each clove is exposed, take off most of the papery outside at this time.
Drizzle led the garlic with olive oil and wrap that sucker up.
Put the wrapped garlic into a preheated 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes.
This is a little piece of heaven. You literally squeeze the garlic out and put it in just about anything. I have made roasted garlic dips,in even added it into the chili I made Sunday night.
—
Spring Garlic is a different beast from the garlic above. These are the smaller garlic bulbs thinned out of the farmer’s row to make room for the hardiest bulbs to grow larger.
Spring garlic, is incredibly sweet and tender it is compared to the larger bulbs that come later. Don’t get me wrong, mature garlic bulbs are amazing as well, but there’s something about the taste of spring garlic that is not easily duplicated, hence when they come along I’ll preserve what I can.I start by cleaning the garlic and separating the whites and light greens from the darker tougher parts. The stalks up top will end up flavoring stocks and soups, while the chopped bits on the bottom will be used in place of minced garlic or scallions.These will be frozen in a single layer on parchment before being placed into a container back in the freezer. This keeps them from sticking together when the time comes to spoon a few out. Use these interchangeably with chives, chive flowers, and scallions.
This is a lovely way to enjoy your butternut squash over the winter. The rich marriage of squash with that herb-infused brown butter makes for a hearty and flavorful meatless stuffed shell. The bacony-crisp of the sage leaves are reminiscent of makes for a perfect garnish, while the amount of cheese involved is entirely flexible (I’ve used nutritional yeast in place of the Parmesan in a pinch.) Roasting the squash before mashing really brings out the sweet and nutty flavor of the squash, a step not to be skipped for full-effect, though you can roast your squash up to 3 days ahead of time as needed.
Not sure what to do with that cabbage? Eggroll in a Bowl is a quick and flexible weeknight option, and when I say flexible, I mean FLEXIBLE! You can make this paleo, gluten free, vegetarian…. So grab your cabbage, carrots, and protein of your choosing, and the rest is up to you and your imagination. It’s also a healthy (and dare I say tastier) alternative to the deep fried crunchy version from your favorite takeout joint, so pull up some ingredients and make it your own!
Submitted by fellow Springdellian Kathleen Spaeth, this scrumptious dish can work as a side or a main, depending on how you want to dress it up. Be sure to read through and prep your ingredients before beginning, as it’s one that needs a bit of well-spent attention during the cooking process. Enjoy!
