12 November 2011

Garlic Tutorial

Today I'm taking a break from my usual recipe posting to share with you something that has absolutely revolutionized my world: a new way to peel garlic!  The claim?  Peel a whole bulb of garlic in 10 seconds flat.

 

Growing up, I learned the family trick of crushing garlic cloves with the tines of a fork to loosen the skin and then removing all the skins by hand.  I later modifed this technique by switching over to using the flat of a chef's knife instead of a fork.  What I love about this method is that it is a great way to start the mincing process.  This isn't based on any rigorous testing or anything, but I feel like the minced garlic somehow tastes better if it's crushed versus chopped.  Maybe it's similar to tearing lettuce leaves instead of chopping them?  But anyway, what I do NOT like about this process is that the garlic juices, released upon crushing, cause the papery layers of the clove to stick all over the place...on my knife, my cutting board, my fingers.  And I always have to check over each smashed clove to make sure I don't have any of the dry skins mixed up with the garlic.




So when I saw this technique, demonstrated by the folks at Saveur, I was intrigued.  Could it be?  Can you really peel a whole clove, nay, a whole BULB of garlic in 10 seconds?  Truly removing all those pesky, papery garlic skins?  And in such record-breaking time?  When I first watched this tutorial, I was a bit skeptical--you never know what goes on when there's a cut in a video.  Could they possibly have slipped in some peeled garlic cloves to make this technique look successful?  So I tried it out last night, and yes indeed folks, it is true.

1. Smash a whole head of garlic with the heel of your hand to separate the cloves.
2. Place all the cloves into a lightweight metal bowl.
3. Invert a second bowl over the first bowl.
4. Hold the bowls tightly together and shake vigorously for 10 seconds.
5. That's it!  Now you'll have whole cloves of garlic that are completely peeled.

My life is pretty much forever changed.  Peeling garlic this way totally works!  And by the way, when I tried this, my bowls weren't as big as the ones shown in the tutorial, nor were they a pair of bowls exactly the same size as each other.  Just as long as you hold the bowls tightly together to keep your garlic from flying out, it should be fine.  Getting at that beloved garlic has just become all that much easier!


How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

2 comments:

The Church Cook said...

THAT is AWESOME, Erica! We know how much garlic is used in Korean foods! This will spare me hours of peeling. THANK YOU! :)

Anonymous said...

I had heard about about this method, tried it once and it didn't work. Now I know why... I didn't know you were supposed to smash the garlic head. I just ran out of peeled garlic so I'll give it try tonight! Thanks!

BTW, I haven't had time to read any blogs up to now and I just briefly looked through yours and I can see that your photos have become even lovelier! I guess the better camera is adding the DOP and the sharper focus, etc. So envious... I have the better camera but I haven't been able to improve my photography all that much from when I had the point and shoot.

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