Minced & Confited Garlic
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| The final products! |
This post is slightly longer in coming than I had hoped, yet better late than never, right?
As I'm sure you all have picked up by now, I'm pretty stinkin' lazy and cheap...and a slight food snob; therefore, wanting to make my own minced jarred garlic shouldn't come as a big surprise.
I always use fresh garlic over garlic powder in recipes (garlic powder is a spice not an ingredient) therefore, if I need minced garlic I must choose between peeling gloves of fresh garlic and mincing them myself or buying jars of pre-minced garlic in oil. Now, I used to buy the jars of the pre-minced stuff then I bit into a rock and upon investigating the source found it came from my jar of pre-minced garlic. Granted, it may not have actually been a rock, but rather a dried bit or end of clove; either way it felt like a rock and thus my time with pre-mince garlic was over.
This was a few years ago and I've been using fresh garlic since (which is indeed a superior product), but my laziness and annoyance over sticky garlic fingers slowly built. About a week ago I finally had had enough; I trolled the internet to see if there were any special tricks or unforeseen complications with making pre-minced garlic myself. Great news all, there weren't any that I could find.
No longer do I have to suffer through sticky, stinky garlic fingers; no longer must I exert the massive stores of energy required to pluck a clove of garlic, peel it, and then mince it each time I want to use tasty tasty garlic!
Now, I can spend the 10 or so minutes extreme effort all at once to create a store of minced garlic, saving me wracking, almost unendurable bouts of fatigue each time I require minced garlic. Plus, the amount of minced garlic produced is enough to hold me over for months; thus, allowing me to recover adequately before having to refill my stores of minced garlic.
Citing the aforementioned laziness, I'm not going to come up with anything quite as fun and creative as the previous description for the garlic confit and garlic oil. It's delicious and easy, that's all you need to know.
Now all the work up is out of the way, let's get to the meat of the issue: THE RECIPES!!
Minced Garlic
Ingredients:
- 6 heads garlic
- ¼ c. vegetable oil
- 1 T salt
Directions:
- Separate the cloves from each head of garlic
- Peel each clove of garlic and reserve them in a plastic prep container (or your equivalent)
- If using food processor to mince, cut cloves into smaller pieces to insure even mincing
- Finely mince garlic and place into glass jar with sealable lid
- Add vegetable oil and mix to combine
Store minced garlic in refrigerator for up to 6 months
**Note** The color is going to look a little paler than what you see in the store, thats ok; it will darken over time. Link to recipe
Garlic Confit
Ingredients:
- 2 heads garlic
- Approx. 1 ½ c. olive oil
Directions:
- Separate the cloves from each head of garlic
- Peel each clove of garlic and place in a small oven-safe container
- Cover with 1 inch of olive oil
- Place in 250 degree F oven for 90 minutes
- Remove cloves from oil; reserve oil as garlic oil
- Mash confited cloves and place in seal-able glass jar
Store confited garlic in refrigerator for up to 3 months;
oil at room temp for up to 6 months.
Get the recipe here.
That concludes this post. Go out and enjoy the freedom you now possess, being freed from the rigors of garlic!
Word,
-The Fumbling Gourmet
