A bulb of garlic has been likened to a rose in bloom---restaurants have taken the name, and poems have been written. Who doesn't love this noble herb? Who ever has enough of it?
Genus Liliaceae. Family Allium. Many edibles are included in the family--garlic, chives, leeks, and various onions are commonly known, loved, and heavily used in cooking all over the world.
We have grown our own in Montana--they are the best imaginable--sweet, juicy, and no inner sprouting. But it's too early for our crop, so a bag of garlic was purchased for roasting chickens
and I set aside 7 extra heads to prepare this recipe.
Roasting garlic is one of the most satisfying things to do in the kitchen. You cannot have too much of the resulting delicious paste. It's a kitchen staple. The commercially processed paste in the grocery store is expensive and doesn't measure up for flavor. You will never use powdered garlic again.
Technique
Use a glass or ceramic oven proof dish with a lid if possible. No lid? Cover tightly with aluminum foil. The glass casserole pictured is "vintage" and allows you to see what's going on as it bakes in the oven. You can find these extremely useful Pyrex type baking dishes at the second hand store (or in your mother's cupboard--as I did).
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Use the middle rack.
See how many heads of garlic fill your dish. Then cut off the top quarter of the heads so they will open during cooking. DO NOT THROW the cuttings away! Save in a small custard cup or ramekin (see photo) and bake along with the main casserole. They take about half the time. As soon as you take them out of the oven, you will be sucking the little bits out of their peels and licking your fingers. This is the cook's treat while doing other tasks. Save the trimmings and press through a tea strainer and use the garlic flavored oil. ( I love wiping out the ramekin with a hard boiled egg. Yes!)
After trimming, replace heads in the baking dish, pour over about 1/4 cup good olive oil (or a little more) and salt and pepper the cut heads. I use white pepper because the garlic is white but black is fine if you don't mind the dark specks.
Cover tightly, place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove dish from the oven, turn heads over with tongs or a spoon and roast another 15 minutes upside down, and then return to right side up for final 15 minutes. This reversal is an easy way to baste the cut ends and keep them from drying out. Optional. But well worth it.
A toothpick is a good tester for doneness--you want soft cloves because when cooled, you are going to grasp each head and squeeze the creamy garlic out for use. When done, the cloves also start to "pop up" and the edges look caramelized.
Heads keep about a week in the refrigerator if you don't plan to use them all at once.
To use, pick up a clove in your hand and squeeze the pastel into a small bowl, pressing out every drop. Add the baking oil from the bottom of the casserole and mix it in with a fork.
There are a million uses in addition to just squeezing the paste on crusty bread and eating.
Use straight for a sandwich spread, add the oil to make a dip, or mix with cream or tomato puree, or any vegetable puree, and make a pasta sauce. Another idea--paint it on your pizza dough before adding tomatoes and cheese. A divine secret ingredient. If your friends don't mind getting garlic on their fingers, set a plate of roast garlic on the buffet or cocktail table and let them squeeze their own....
KGC
Thanks to Michael Chiarello, the great chef at Tra Vigne in St. Helena, California, for the basis of this technique. We have enjoyed many many fabulous dishes at the restaurant which features seasonal specialties from the wine region.
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