Posts tagged ‘garlic’

One thing I’ve learned from my CSA farm share—organic vegetables go bad fast.  It makes me wonder if the folks over at Whole Paycheck are playing fast and loose with the organic label.  (I tease because I’m jealous. Their produce section makes me happier than Bloomingdale’s.) So when I bought a big, beautiful bunch of cilantro at Saturday’s farmer’s market, I knew I needed to do something delicious with it before the end of the weekend.

I improvised with a few basic ingredients to create an Asian inspired cilantro pesto.  What I love about pesto is that you don’t have to be to precise about your ingredients. Like garlic? Add a ton of garlic! Add cheese to make it creamy or more oil so that it soaks well into sandwich bread. It’s done best when suited to your taste.  My taste buds craved the perfect balance of brightness and heat.  Out came my very handy mini-chopper and in went:

• a handful of peanuts
• the whole darned bunch of cilantro leaves
• juice of half a lime
• about a tablespoon of sesame oil
• a clove of raw garlic. Back off vampire trend!
• Finally, a few splashes of Sriracha.

Rocco, my constant kitchen companion.

I served my pesto over Japanese wheat noodles. They have a nice bite that pairs well with the boldness of these flavors. Now tell me your pesto secrets!

My dear sister, my only sibling, is no slouch in the kitchen. She can out-cookie me at Christmastime by a mile and has no problem plowing through recipes like hamburger buns, empanadas, or tomato tarts. So imagine my surprise when I had her help me prep for a barbecue earlier this month and realized she was time-consumingly slicing garlic into coins and then mincing each slice into tiny squares, one by one.

Sister and public, there is an easier way! And it doesn’t require a garlic press or any other fancy tools—truth be told, I subscribe to the Alton Brown school of thought on cooking implements and try not to buy tools that can’t be used for multiple purposes.

First, peel your clove. If the “skin” is particularly thick, you can place the clove on the cutting board and smash it with the side of your knife, then remove the papery husk. If the skin is already peeling away easily, take it off and then smash that puppy flat.

Next, slice off the bulb end and remove the germ from the garlic. This is the thicker, tougher cylindrical piece in the center of the clove, and is the part that can impart bitter flavors to your dish, especially if the garlic is old and the germ is green and sprouting.

see the germ in the middle? It's not green in this particular clove.

Now, the most important step and the one that will serve you well in your future cooking endeavors: slice the smushed clove into long shards – essentially a very fine julienne – using your knife in a rocking motion. See the video below and note the placement of my fingers on the knife handle. For maximum utility, grab the knife with thumb and forefingers where the blade meets the handle instead of extending your pointer finger out over the blade. This makes the knife less of an external tool and more of an extension of your arm.

Once your clove is nicely slivered, pile the pieces up, turn them sideways, and mow down the pile with the same rocking motion. I am doing this very slowly in the videos for educational purposes but once you’ve got the motion down, you can pick up speed and get through half a bulb of garlic in no time.

If you need a smoother paste for your dish, sprinkle a little kosher salt on your pile of minced pieces, and do the smash and rub with the side of your knife a few times – what you’re doing here is basically the same job as a mortar and pestle, only without dirtying another piece of kitchen equipment.

Bonus: when you’re done with your garlic, you can use it to make extra-garlicky mushrooms, my no-fail carbonara, or a simple compound butter.