The Currabinny Cooks: Our three favourite garlic recipes

Currabinny Cooks Garlic Fried Rice

Garlic has perhaps the most solid claim to being the most useful ingredient in any kitchen and for any cuisine. Sweet things not included, I cannot think of anything really where garlic wouldn’t be appropriate, even if it was just a small bit. 

This might be a slight exaggeration but it is up there with salt, pepper and perhaps lemon juice as the ultimate seasonings.

The thing about garlic is that a recipe might call for 12 cloves or 1 but it is how you treat those cloves that matters. Garlic can be gentle even in large quantities when roasted or you could have one extremely pungent raw clove of garlic. Garlic has sulphuric compounds which contribute to its pungency but as you break down these compounds, either through cooking or gently crushing, the less pungent the garlic will be. 

The very basics of handling garlic all rely on controlling, enhancing or mellowing these penetrating sulphuric compounds. Chopping, crushing, agitating a raw clove of garlic will activate the harsh garlicky notes whilst slowly, gently crushing or using heat to roast the garlic will give you something far sweeter, more mellow and deep.

There has been a lot of noise about ‘pre-biotics’ lately, which are compounds in food that induce the growth or activity of beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. These prebiotics serve as food for probiotics which support helpful bacteria in the gut. Garlic is apparently an excellent prebiotic. It also apparently keeps away vampires, lowers blood pressure and has antibiotic properties.

Growing garlic is refreshingly straight forward. If you plant in March you will have garlic bulbs by July or August. Try to source good quality organic cloves specific for seeding. You can even start them in little planter pots before transplanting them to the garden plot. Planting your own is always worth it but especially when it is super easy to grow and look after. 

Most of the supermarket garlic is imported from China, some 5000 miles away. Luckily there are some excellent producers of garlic emerging here in Ireland. There is no need to import from so far away when our soil and climate are perfectly adequate for producing our own bulbs. Drummond House in County Louth is leading the way in producing heritage Irish grown garlic. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Garlic Fried Rice

I don’t think I have ever cooked the ‘right’ amount of rice. There always seems to be some left over. Just a couple of ingredients, the main one being garlic, can transform leftover rice into a quick and tasty meal. This is surprisingly good in the morning with a crispy fried egg on top and maybe a few lashings of homemade hot sauce.

Garlic Fried Rice - surprisingly good in the morning. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 scallion, sliced thinly
• 300g cooked white rice
• 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• Pinch of sea salt 
• 1 egg
• Chilli flakes, optional 

Method:

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan and add the garlic. Move the garlic around the hot oil until just starting to brown. Be very careful not to let it burn. Add the rice to the pan and stir around the garlic and oil. After a few minutes the rice will start to become slightly crispy. Add the sesame oil and sliced scallions and mix around the pan. You don’t want the scallion to cook too much. Season will salt and pepper and move to a bowl. Add a fried egg and some chilli flakes before serving.

Blackened Garlic Soup

This recipe was given to me by a French friend and it is a very traditional method of making a broth with garlic. In Provençe it is known as ‘Äigo Bouido’ and it is an incredibly comforting soup made with the bare minimum of ingredients. There is no stock, cream or potato needed here, just the pure flavour of garlic, enhanced by charring the bulbs. The creamy texture comes from emulsifying the egg yolk and olive oil. I tend to make this in single servings, for myself when I am in need of comfort. I have left the recipe as a single serving because I believe strongly in cooking for one's self as an act of self-love. If you want to double this recipe up and include others in this culinary self-care then I suppose it should be easy enough to do that.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1 egg yolk
• 3-4 fat garlic cloves
• 250ml of water
• 2-3 sage leaves
• Sea salt & black pepper

Method:

The cloves should still have their papery skins on them before you char them. Simply fry them on a dry frying pan or grill them until the outside skins turn black. Set aside.

Boil garlic cloves in the water for around 30 minutes. Beat the oil and egg yolk together in a little bowl. Remove the garlic from their skins and crush the cloves. Add the crushed garlic back into the broth along with the sage leaves. Add a tablespoon of the broth to the egg emulsion, beating vigorously and then pour this into the broth, whisking until the soup is creamy. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Honey Pickled Garlic

This is a recipe which celebrates both the pungency and natural sweetness of garlic. It's incredibly simple to make and only needs a week or two pickling in the jar before you can use it. This is a natural remedy for colds and flus or will simply act as an easy way to add the flavour of garlic and honey to a dish. This isn’t technically fermenting but rather an infusion of garlic, honey and vinegar. The garlic will release liquid into the honey and vinegar solution, starting a sort of fermentation to take place but it shouldn’t bubble or begin to ‘activate’ like an actual ferment.

Ingredients:

• 5 large heads of garlic
• 100ml apple cider vinegar
• 50ml water
• 10 tablespoons of honey
• 2 star anise 
• 5 peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 cloves 

Method:

In a small saucepan heat the cider vinegar, water and honey together along with the star anise, peppercorns, salt and cloves. Bring to the boil and then simmer for around 5 minutes.

Stuff the garlic heads into a medium sized kilner jar which you have sterilised. Pour the liquid in over it making sure that all of the garlic is completely immersed.

Seal and leave somewhere cool for two weeks. When you open it, use within a month and keep in the fridge.