Fastest way to prep garlic?

[Bioplasmoid]

Vampires and Breathmint makers turn away now...Ok so I love garlic right. What is the fastest way to deshell and crush/chop garlic cloves without the use of electrical appliances or custom tools made of low grade plastic? As in a quick manual way to do it, with standard items from around the home/workshop/office.





PurpleFnords added to this post, 1 minutes and 50 seconds later...

Putting it in a plastic bag and smashing it on the concrete floor seems fast, but removal of small bits of the cloves outer membrane, slows the process right down. Lol.

[mkay]

Chinese use a cleaver. You break off however many cloves you need, cut off ends of the cloves, then you press down on the cloves with a whole flat side of the cleaver, with your whole palm doing the pressing. All the insides smush out of the skin, so you can just pick out the skin and toss, then mince the garlic or smash it some more. Chinese use lots of garlic in everyday cooking.

[Bioplasmoid]

Thanks, ive been doing that with my palm, but just clicked it could help to use something harder, like a Cleaver! duh, i need more caffeine.

[mkay]

Sure thing. I don't know that that's necessarily the easiest/best way, but it works quickly.

The other thing is, you can buy fresh whole raw cloves already shucked. You just mince or do whatever you need to 'em. Places like Whole Foods sell 'em in a see-through plastic tub, so probably other supermarkets do, too. I buy those when my husband wants to make a huge mess of garlic paste for a bunch of dishes. We're garlic fiends.

One of the quickest things is a garlic liquid-paste he makes out of garlic cloves and olive oil, simmered together. Once the cloves are "done" (soft), he pours the whole panful of oil and cloves into a food processor and beats the hell out of it. You can then refrigerate a Tupperware full of this mixture, which you can brush onto bread and heat for great garlic bread any time. The mixture lasts for weeks, so you can have garlicky flavor without making a new mess. The olive oil is healthier than butter, and you can brush and toast bread in a few minutes.

[Bioplasmoid]

Well I cheated and bought a tub last night of pre-minced garlic, but i prefer it in chunky form, as then it still has some texture when put into various dishes, and simmered for a while. Also for the price of one pre-minced or pre-shucked jar of garlic, I can buy way more bulbs on their own. Plus I can roast/grill those cloves whole in the oven alternatively. :cool:

The Garlic liquid paste, sounds great! Does it really last two weeks in the fridge?

[mkay]

Yeah, we buy the fresh whole stuff or the whole shucked cloves and mince ourselves because the taste is fresher and it's as chunky as we need. We only buy the shucked ones when we use them right away, otherwise you lose freshness.

The liquid-paste lasts at least two weeks. At least we've eaten it that way for years and it hasn't sickened or killed us, haha. You can actually brush it onto anything you want (meat? chicken? vegetables? tofu?) and throw it on a grill or in the oven to broil. (You could also add spices to it last minute, to keep the spices fresher tasting.) We just use it for garlic bread because my husband likes to cook other stuff from scratch usually. He's the cook. I'm the bottle-washer.

I'm good at ordering takeout. Garlic and pepperoni pizza -- yum.

[thod]

I have dried garlic, garlic puree in a tube, and crushed garlic in sort of oil. The advantages of using fresh garlic with all that chopping are not worth it. I buy flour instead of grinding my own wheat too.

[SongofSeptember]

Chinese use a cleaver. You break off however many cloves you need, cut off ends of the cloves, then you press down on the cloves with a whole flat side of the cleaver, with your whole palm doing the pressing. All the insides smush out of the skin, so you can just pick out the skin and toss, then mince the garlic or smash it some more. Chinese use lots of garlic in everyday cooking.

Haha, you totally stole what I was going to say. One of the very few things I know about the kitchen. Anyway, that is exactly right.

[SerialPsychosis]

Take it apart, and boil it with the skin on.... when you are done boiling it the skin should slide right off and you can chop and/or mince it immediately afterward.

[rwyatt365]

Chinese use a cleaver. You break off however many cloves you need, cut off ends of the cloves, then you press down on the cloves with a whole flat side of the cleaver, with your whole palm doing the pressing. All the insides smush out of the skin, so you can just pick out the skin and toss, then mince the garlic or smash it some more. Chinese use lots of garlic in everyday cooking.
A cleaver, or the flat of any chef's knife will do (most are sufficiently wide to do this).

[mkay]

I have dried garlic, garlic puree in a tube, and crushed garlic in sort of oil. The advantages of using fresh garlic with all that chopping are not worth it. I buy flour instead of grinding my own wheat too.

Lol. My idea of time-saving is to only date / marry men who cook.

My husband is a vegan who's picky about food, so he'd say fresh is better. Done right, the cleaver thing takes seconds.

[Bioplasmoid]

The cleaver thing sounds good. But the boiling thing sounds usefull for making soup stock possibly.

[Solaris]

I love smashing garlic with the flat of my knife. It's very satisfying somehow.

I also make garlic/herb butters and keep them in the fridge. I like butter on my garlic bread, and I don't butter much else, so I'm fine with that.

Roasted garlic is wonderful in all kinds of things. I've started experimenting with the effects of different flavors added while roasting it. Nothing really amazing yet, but tasty just the same.

Tonight, I did add a couple of cloves of garlic (smashed with the flat of my knife of course) to the water while I simmered my brown rice. I also added a seeded serrano pepper. Gave the soup some extra kick and flavor.

[Elfrun]

I don't know what's funnier, the fact that a thread about how to prepare garlic could receive so many responses or the fact that I've found it informative ;D

[Bioplasmoid]

*bows to trinity* *sly grin*. Solaris - I almost had a phobia towards brown rice, until i tried cooking some recently, and was pretty impressed by the added texture and how much more filling it is. Thats a great idea to infuse more flavour into it. I always use too much salt in everything, and the garlic flavoured rice should help me cut my sodium intake a fair bit. Is serrano pepper similiar to capsicum or chilli? I cant get enough capsicum, wonderful stuff, even raw. (and supposedly packed with vitamin C)

[Solaris]

*bows to trinity* *sly grin*. Solaris - I almost had a phobia towards brown rice, until i tried cooking some recently, and was pretty impressed by the added texture and how much more filling it is. Thats a great idea to infuse more flavour into it. I always use too much salt in everything, and the garlic flavoured rice should help me cut my sodium intake a fair bit. Is serrano pepper similiar to capsicum or chilli? I cant get enough capsicum, wonderful stuff, even raw. (and supposedly packed with vitamin C)

Yes, any hot pepper should do fine. You can seed it, or not, according to your own taste.

I treat rice like I treat soy products -- as a sponge into which I need to put flavor.

[Synamon]

Roasting it is great. Cut the pointy top off the whole garlic bulb, just cutting through the tips of each bulb, drizzle with olive oil, wrap up in tinfoil and bake at a low oven (350 F) for 30 - 40 minutes. Then just freeze the whole bulb and you can snap off a clove to use it whenever you want. It will thaw quickly or can be thawed in the microwave if you are impatient. This is especially good for soups or pasta or bread since the garlic flavor is more mellow once it's roasted. It will be soft and you just squeeze it out of the papery covering.

I also find garlic oozes from my husband's pores, yuck, and this phenomenom is not as bad with roasted garlic.

[replicant]

Usually with garlic, I break apart how many pieces I need then like others use the flat side of a cleaver and crack the casing.

Once I crack the casing I either chop it up with a knife or pulse them in my kitchen aid food processor or I use a garlic card.

[Bioplasmoid]

Synamon, what a great synergy of natural packaging and preparation you have there. Yet another great tip.

Thanks Replicant, but what exactly is a 'garlic card' ?

[Elfrun]

What the...

:stunned:

This thread is still going...

OMG, it's still informative.


All hail Garlic!

[Solaris]

*Crowns Purplefnords with a wreath of garlic*
All Hail the Garlic King!


Yes, I also would like to know what a garlic card is.

[replicant]

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[rwyatt365]

That is just plain wrong.

[HackerX]

I would use the large knife rather than a cleaver, but the effect is the same.

Or you could just get a garlic press:
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[Bioplasmoid]

Of course, but it just seems plain wrong to use one of those. Besides, every one ive seen or used before, only allows you to put a maximum of 2-3 cloves of garlic in together. I want the fastest way to turn a whole bulb or more, of garlic into a nice pile of pulverised vegetable and juice. And it has to be able to be cleaned fast. Now those things look easy to clean, but are notorious for bits of vegetable getting stuck in the holes. Also they tend to not have an effective seal between the pressing part and the holes or mesh, which results in spurious clumps of improperly crushed garlic gathering around the outside after each squeeze of the handle. Consistency of the output product is important for reasons of sheer vanity to me! It is possible that some of those hideously expensive manual fruit juice cold-pressing machines might just be ideal for this, as well as making better quality juice than those of the grating variety, such as the garlic card.

You see, the thing is I enjoy cooking (often). It really is a pleasure when I dont have to spend too long preparing the raw materials, or cleaning up afterwards. Yes im lazy in the kitchen. The pleasurable aspect for me, is smelling and tasting the combinations of flavour as they breakdown in the process of cooking and mixing, and the sheer adventure of adding spices and herbs, by estimation of amount only. As long as the final dish does not vary too far from the taste I achieved the last time it was prepared, yet is still slightly different, then it is also a pleasure to consume.

[mkay]

My INTJ husband thinks similarly. That's why he uses a cleaver, because he can crush and mince garlic, chop vegetables, debone a chicken with one knife. (He's vegan but he cooks chicken for me sometimes.) You also can use the handle or blunt side of a cleaver to tenderize or flatten meat or chicken, and use the cleaver to scoop up everything you've chopped. Heck, you can crack open a coconut with a cleaver. ... I give cleavers a thumbs-up because I'm all for fewer things for me to wash once he's done making a mess, lol.

[Bioplasmoid]

Ok mkay,thats it, I want a big cleaver. I might venture out in the light of day sometime soon, and go shopping for one. It will be fun infuriating the sales staff with my "just browsing"!

[mkay]

Lol, happy shopping. The link below shows some of the stuff you can do with a cleaver. We don't own this cleaver. Ours is heavier; there are various weights and such. And ours is one-piece metal, including the handle.

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[Solaris]

I love the cleaver in my kitchen! It makes a very satisfying sound when whacking things with it. I like it when trying to cut up a large squash. One good swing and I get through the whole squash usually. Try that with any old knife!

[Motor Jax]

chopped up and sauted along with onions are the best

[Danisty]

I have dried garlic, garlic puree in a tube, and crushed garlic in sort of oil. The advantages of using fresh garlic with all that chopping are not worth it. I buy flour instead of grinding my own wheat too.I totally disagree with this. Garlic is not at all difficult to deal with if you use the flat of your knife like it's been suggested here. Plus, if you have a good knife, you can mince it in no time. Every dish I make with garlic (and that's a lot of them) tastes much better with fresh garlic. People notice and comment on it.

[mkay]

Every dish I make with garlic (and that's a lot of them) tastes much better with fresh garlic. People notice and comment on it.

That's it. I'm inviting myself to your house for dinner. (Tucks dinner napkin into my collar. Now must drive to your house with knife and fork in hand.)

[azelismia]

I just discovered garlic stalks. it's the flower end of the garlic. you have to cook them very very thoroughly, as they are tough but they're very good and require almost no prep. they're not as garlicky as the garlic bulb.





azelismia added to this post, 1 minutes and 37 seconds later...

That's it. I'm inviting myself to your house for dinner. (Tucks dinner napkin into my collar. Now must drive to your house with knife and fork in hand.)

heh, it took me a second to get what you meant by Tucks since it was capitalised. I was thinking like Tucks rectum soothers. but then I saw that you just meant like, tuck in a napkin.. not you're bringing the tucks rectum soothers over for dinner and you're gonna use em like napkins.

honestly, as puerile as it is, that's the best laugh I've had all day.

[mkay]

heh, it took me a second to get what you meant by Tucks since it was capitalised. I was thinking like Tucks rectum soothers. but then I saw that you just meant like, tuck in a napkin.. not you're bringing the tucks rectum soothers over for dinner and you're gonna use em like napkins.

honestly, as puerile as it is, that's the best laugh I've had all day.

Lol, excellent.

[mkay]

Thought this might interest garlic lovers:

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[Marcus]

Or you could just get a garlic press:
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I bought one. It's made of metal. Aluminum, I guess.