Buying Garlic
Comments from the author:
“This article has been dragged, kicking and screaming, from the old BretonDiary.”
OK. Some things that I have learnt about buying garlic...
Always buy it from the Saturday morning market at Josselin. Well this works for me but might cause you some problems - I can assure you, however - it's worth making the effort. The supermarket stuff just isn't the same.
Garlic is grown in the south of France (the good stuff, that is) and is picked in early to mid summer (depending upon the area) and then dried for three months (in warm air but out of direct sunlight). L'ail blond de Lomage & L'ail rond de Limousin are the first to be found. Then L'ail violet appears (a good keeping variety) and is finally followed (and out-classed) by the l'ail rose de Lautrec.
It needs keeping away from bright light but needs fresh air. Mine lives in baskets on a shelf beside the fireplace. I also have a terracotta jar (with holes in it) by the worktop which is always full of whole and part heads of Garlic. Like everyone else (I'm talking about the English here), I have a string of Garlic hung up on the wall - why? It looks pretty - that's why. The actual heads of Garlic dried out after about 6 months - it's purely for show. The exception here is Smoked Garlic. Sometimes I get a string of this from the market (it doesn't appear very often). This gets strung up from a bookcase where it benefits from maximum sunlight throughout the day. It sweats slighlty and, as a result, stinks the kitchen out with that beautiful smoky garlic smell. Smoked garlic doesn't last long enough in my kitchen to go off!
Things to do with Garlic.
I use it with almost everything. Haven't tried it with Ice Cream yet - but I'm sure that'll come.
Try... With young garlic, slicing it very thinly and using raw on fish or in a salad.
Try... Putting a few heads of Garlic in a terracotta tray/terrine/dish and putting it in the oven every time you cook something (just for the smell).
Try... Peeling a couple of dozen cloves and putting them in a jar and then filling it up with olive oil. After one month, the garlic loses some of it's strength but seems to gain in flavour. After two months, it softens slightly and can be crushed without slicing (nice for stews or soups). After about three months, the cloves can be sliced and used raw with salad or as an accompaniment to cheese. Obviously, you need to be a bit organised (i.e. have three jars (or more - if you're me!)). By the way, the olive oil that you are storing the garlic in becomes the sexiest, most gorgeous stuff you'll ever use in your kitchen.
The one thing you should avoid is, the Garlic Crusher.The only people who use these are people who don't know better (the chavs of the cullinary world ?). To crush Garlic, just chop it finely and then use the side of the knife to crush it against the chopping board. I don't know why this works so much better, it just does!
