How to Use Black Garlic ~ so Many Delicious Ways!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bugger for black garlic, which makes me cool because I recently read that black garlic is …

“the latest ‘it’ ingredient in chef’s kitchens.”

At first black garlic might a bit scary. It is, however, soft and squidgy and a tentative nibble will convince you that there is nothing to fear, it is utterly delicious!!  It hardly tastes of garlic at all, maybe vaguely reminiscent, that’s all. The flavour is mellowed to a sweet molasses/balsamic taste, sweet and caramelised, which goes well with both sweet and savoury ingredients.  It is also good for you – see end of post for the many ways black garlic can benefit your life.

I normally mash or crush or even finely chop black garlic cloves, but you can also buy black garlic paste (which smells divine when you open the jar) which is so flippin’ useful – 1 black garlic clove is about the same as half a teaspoon of paste.

Here are my black garlic ideas – so far …

Black Garlic Oil

6 cloves of black garlic or 3 teaspoons black garlic paste
60 ml olive oil

Whisk together, it won’t emulsify but it still works.

Use black garlic oil to ...

~   brush around the naked edge of pizza before baking,
~   or onto hot fresh out the oven focaccia,
~   toss with bits of bread to make croutons. (Please, please do make you own croutons – it’s ridiculously easy and absolutely pointless buying them!), 
~   roast potatoes,
~   smear over chicken before roasting,
~   drizzle on salads, soups, meat, fish, cheese or whatever you fancy,
~   as a dipping oil,
~   mix with a modicum of balsamic vinegar as a great salad dressing or marinade for beef or duck.

 Black Garlic Butter

Cream together soft butter and black garlic to taste (crumbled blue cheese and/or coarsely ground black pepper are both good additions to this) and you might as well make plenty and store it, here’s a good way …

~   Spread a square of clingfilm or baking parchment onto the counter.
~   Scrape the soft and tasty butter into sausage about 30mm from and parallel to one edge.
~   Lift that edge and use the film or parchment to roll and shape the butter into a cylinder.
~   When satisfied roll the butter in the rest of the clingfilm and twist the ends to secure.
~   Chill or freeze until needed.
~   Use a hot knife to slice cold or frozen butters.

See here for more on compound butters.

Use Black Garlic Butter to …

~   make fabulous garlic bread.
~   add to mashed potatoes – particularly good with steak
~   swirl a little on top of a bowl of mushroom (or other) soup
~   dollop into baked potato
~   sauté mushrooms
~   top a steak with a slice or two of the chilled butter, or, even better …
~   after pan frying steak set the meat aside somewhere warm to relax and make a delicious pan sauce. Add a splash of red wine, beef stock or even water to the pan and boil, scraping the pan to dissolve any meaty juices, and when there is just a tablespoon of sauce left quickly stir in a knob of the butter till emulsified and pour it over the steak.
~   enrich scrambled eggs. You know when you are scrambling eggs and they are just about perfect? Immediately they reach this point stir in some cold butter (in this case black garlic butter) which will not only enrich the eggs but will stop them cooking any further and keep them perfect.
~   the taste of black garlic goes surprisingly well with eggs so try spreading it on toast for poached eggs or perhaps onto your soldiers! Here are lots of ways to cook eggs, all of which go well with black garlic.
~   etc.

Mushrooms on Toast with Black Garlic Alfredo

Per person …

15g butter
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
80ml double cream
2 cloves of black garlic – coarsely chopped, or 1 teaspoon of paste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
a handful of mushrooms – quartered
1 tbsp olive oil
A thick slice of great bread

~   First make the Alfredo Sauce – in a small pan simply heat together the first four ingredients till the butter has melted and a thickish sauce has formed.  Set aside for a few minutes for the garlic flavour to infuse into the sauce whilst cooking the mushrooms.
~   In a separate pan sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil till golden – sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
~   Toast the bread.
~   Stir the mushrooms into the sauce and pour over the toast.

This sauce would be good on pasta too.

Tagliatelle with Black Garlic & Blue Cheese

Serves 1 – just double up if you have foodie friends.

A slice of great bread, coarsely crumbled
1 tbsp of black garlic oil
4 nests of tagliatelle
75g Saint Agur cheese (or any other leftover blue cheese)
another tbsp of black garlic oil
a clove or two of black garlic coarsely chopped or equivalent in paste

 ~   Drizzle the first tablespoon of oil over the breadcrumbs and toss together.  Either dry fry till crisp and golden or bake for a few minutes in a hot oven to achieve the same end. These crisp crumbs are known as Pangrattato, read more here.
~   Chop or crumble the cheese and mix together with the black garlic and the second tbsp of oil.
~   Cook the tagliatelle according to instructions on the packet.
~   Set aside about 60 ml of the cooking water then drain the pasta.
~   Stir together the pasta, the blue cheese mixture and the reserved cooking water.
~   Taste and season – freshly ground black pepper is great with this – stir in some of the crisp crumbs and top the pasta with the rest.

Black Garlic Risotto

One serving again! …

1 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots finely chopped
2 (or 3 or 4) black garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
small knob (excuse me!) of butter
100g risotto rice
40 ml red wine
about 300 ml simmering vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese

~   Cook the shallots gently in the olive oil till they are translucent.
~   Stir in the garlic and the butter.
~   When the butter has melted add the rice and stir till thoroughly coated with buttery goo.
~   Add the wine and cook, stirring, over medium heat till it has all disappeared (not really – it’s in the rice!).
~   Gradually add the hot stock a little at a time and cook, stirring continuously, till there is very little left then add some more.  Continue doing this till the rice is tender but with a little bite and is coated with an unctuous sauce. 
~   Grate in plenty of parmesan then taste and season.  I added my lovely smoked black pepper from Nature Kitchen but just freshly ground black pepper would be good too.
~   For even more luxuriousness stir in a little more butter.

Having some leftover chestnut mushrooms languishing in the fridge I sautéed a few and added them to the finished dish, but it’s not compulsory!

The risotto was gently infused with a sweet garlickiness, I only used 2 cloves of the black stuff but next time I think I shall use more and in bigger lumps so as to occasionally I get a solid hit of it.

A few more black garlic ideas …

~   purée together a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise and 2 cloves of black garlic.
~   mix black garlic together with some of the aforementioned Saint Agur and eat with hot nubbly toast and a glass of red wine.  Just typing about it makes me drool! This would work well with other cheeses too.
~ mix a little in with the meat when making homemade burgers.
~ Black Garlic Ice Cream! Honest!

I like it so much I might try Black Garlic Sugar soon!

What is Black Garlic?

Black garlic originates from South Korea but is now made using a method, recently developed in America, which takes several weeks.  During this time the sugars and amino acids react together causing the mellow flavour and the black colour.

Benefits of Black Garlic

In addition to its wonderful flavour black garlic offers several other benefits …

~   Despite having no additives it has a surprisingly long shelf life.
~    It doesn’t cause bad breath.
~    It is full of antioxidants which, as we all know, kill free radicals – the gits.
~    It is low fat and high in natural sugars.
~    It is easily digested, more easily than fresh garlic.

 I urge you to give Black Garlic a try, I’m sure you
won’t regret it.

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