Confit Garlic (the condiment you never knew you so desperately needed)
Well, once again I find myself in the awkward position of having to convince you to make something that doesn’t ACTUALLY need a recipe. But then again, I figure that’s kind of a plus! You don’t need a recipe, don’t really need to measure anything, can make as much or as little as you like. ALL you need is faith in me when I tell you that this is pretty much the best, most versatile thing you can ever have sitting in your fridge.
CONFIT GARLIC WOOOO WOOO!!!! Like a boat of deliciousness floating into harbour this GOD DAMN BEAUTY will cavort around on your tongue filling it with sweet melting amazingness. Serve it with a cheese board and smother it on crackers topped with brie, stir it through steaming hot, just-cooked pasta, blitz it up in your salad dressings with salt & pepper, and a little vinegar and lemon juice, sizzle it in a pan with some fresh mushrooms and thyme, toss it with sun kissed summer tomatoes and salt then serve with torn hunks of buffalo mozzarella it is 2.59pm on a Wednesday and I have planned nothing I am saying here I AM JUST RIFFING because the possibilities are genuinely endless.
Have I convinced you to make confit garlic yet? Yes? Ok. Good. Here’s the non-recipe recipe.
Actually before the non-recipe recipe I’d better tell you what confit garlic is. According to google, Confit (/kɒnfi/, French pronunciation: [kɔ̃fi]) (from the French word confire, literally "to preserve") is any type of food that is cooked slowly over a long period of time as a method of preservation. In this instance, we confit the garlic in olive oil, resulting in the most decadent condiment you ever did try. The garlic cloves soften and sweeten over 1-2 hours, becoming these amazing, mild little bubbles of deliciousness. Their flavour seeps into the oil as they cook, meaning not only do you have delicious cloves to spread over everything you can think of, you also have ready-made garlic infused olive oil to cook with. Stored in the fridge, they should keep for about 2-3 weeks. The oil takes on a kind of creamy, buttery consistency in the fridge, and you can spoon it out in big dollops along with the garlic cloves, or you can take the cloves out specifically and use the remaining oil for regular cooking, frying, whatever-ing. I like to make a big batch, put it in a lot of small jars and then store most of them in the freezer, taking them out one by one and keeping them in the fridge as I need them (in the freezer they should keep for a few months).
Confit Garlic
Makes a few jars
Ingredients
Garlic. As much garlic as you can reasonably purchase from the supermarket without looking like someone who is conducting some kind of vampire-oriented ritualistic cleansing ceremony. Let’s start with 10 heads.
Olive oil (I probably used about 500ml, but I used A LOT of garlic. I probably looked like someone who is conducting some kind of vampire-oriented ritualistic cleansing ceremony). Use the good stuff, too, the grassy, almost-green, strong-scented delicious stuff. You won’t be wasting it - the oil takes on all the flavour of the garlic and is the perfect cooking companion to every dish I rattled off above.
That’s all! That’s all you need! Plus a heap of little jars to fill with your garlicky goodness once it’s done.
Method
Break apart all the heads of garlic, and peel each individual clove. This is the fiddly bit, don’t worry, it’s worth it.
Put the garlic cloves in a heavy saucepan and fill with olive oil until every clove is just covered.
Put the heat on as low as is absolutely possible - you don’t want the oil to boil, you just want to keep it at a very gentle simmer. Let it cook like this for at least an hour, maybe two. You’ll know it’s ready when the cloves are beautiful and soft, and have taken on a mild, sweet, delicious flavour.
Sterilise a heap of small jars by boiling them in a big pot of water for 10 minutes. Pour the hot oil and confit garlic into the jars (careful! hot!). Leave on the bench to cool to room temperature, then keep in the fridge (eat within 2-3 weeks) or in the freezer if you want to store them for longer.
As I say, there are pretty much infinite uses for garlic confit because it adds such a nice, delicate flavour to anything you add it to. In my next post, I’ll share one of my favourite examples: a vague recipe to make the most delicious and simple pasta that ever there was! (photo below)
