The Perfect Garlic Press

I love it when designers get it right! And the designers at Dreamfarm get it right most of the time.
Now they've designed what I consider to be the perfect garlic press and they cleverly call it Garject.
I love Garject. Clever name too: it's a garlic gadget that ejects the skin...

I love Garject because it works. We eat a lot of garlic. Who wouldn't if they knew all the health benefits it provides? So I've tested and destroyed a lot of garlic presses over the years– one literally fell apart in two perfect pieces the first time I test-pressed it!

Garject is heavy-duty and strong enough to hold and squish Simon's (my local organic garlic grower) fresh organic garlic cloves. Here's what it does:
presses unpeeled garlic
scrapes itself clean
ejects the peel

In fact, the peel comes shooting out like a bullet. So have the composting bin ready!
Best (well not best, but up there) of all? It rinses clean and is dishwasher safe.

Now that's a new spin on an essential tool.
Check out some of my other Dreamfarm favourites: scizza, tapi, smood or teafu...

Roasting the Harvest

I’m very fond of roasted vegetables, and now that cooler weather is drifting into the kitchen from outdoors, I am happy to fire up the oven and enjoy them again. Harvest time provides an abundance of fruits and vegetables ripe and perfect for roasting – they’re heaped in baskets at markets and supermarkets everywhere.

Roasting is an oven technique that requires a higher heat than baking. It’s a fast-cooking method that draws out and caramelizes the natural sugars on the outside while concentrating and deepening the flavours on the inside. Thick, firm, and juicy-fleshed fruits such as plums, apricots, and cherries, and all kinds of vegetables such as beets, onions, squash, turnip, carrots, parsnips, eggplant, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, and asparagus, benefit from roasting. What follows is my basic recipe for roasting fruits or vegetables.

For more recipes on Roasting Vegetables and Fruits and my original recipe for Chicken with Roasted Black Plums and Greens, go here.

Roasted Garlic

Fresh Ontario garlic is available now from any of the farmers who visit the city every week, and my advice is to buy it in bulk and use it all winter in robust dishes. One of my favourite ways to use garlic in cooking is to roast the whole head. Whole roasted garlic bulbs morph into a sweet and meltingly tender pulp with a deceptively mellow and nutty flavour that is versatile and delicious in fall dishes. Roasting garlic is easy. I like to roast two or three heads at a time because generally I substitute one whole head in place of one or two bulbs in a recipe. I use roasted garlic in spreads and dips and as a flavouring for sauce, soup, and stew. 
For roasting garlic, I prefer to use a small heatproof baking dish with a lid instead of aluminum foil, and there are electric and terra cotta garlic roasting pots widely available online and in kitchen supply stores. The method is easy and my recipe follows: (Makes 1 head)

1 whole head garlic

1 tsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C)

2. Remove the loose, papery skin from the garlic head and slice and discard 1/4 inch off the tips of the cloves across the top of the head. Place the garlic head, cut side up in a small heatproof baking dish*  and drizzle with oil. Cover with a lid or foil. 

3. Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until garlic is quite soft. Transfer to a cooling rack. 

4. When garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze cloves from their skins. It is now ready to use in any recipe that calls for roasted garlic.

* Note: If using a clay garlic roaster with a lid, roast at 375° F (190° C) for 35 to 40 minutes.

Healing Herbs

Healing foods hold keys to healthIndeed, our pace of living and the commercialization of food seems to have masked what is perhaps the most important key to good health, that of diet. Long before modern medicine, cultures were eating healing foods to both prevent and heal illness. The ancient Chinese document, the Niejing (circa 500 BC) illustrates the importance of using medicinal herbs in everyday food as a fundamental tool in preventing and treating disease. It is likely that both Hippocrates and The Yellow Emperor would have enjoyed healing broth, soup or other long-simmering dishes. Read my article in Canadian Health and Lifestyle to discover the healing secrets of ginger, turmeric, thyme, cinnamon, and more kitchen herbs for health.

Herb Paste

Herb Paste

Similar to pesto, but with more body, herb pastes can be made from any flavour combination- hot/pungent spices, lemon herbs, Mediterranean herbs, and on and on. Hot chiles are often combined in a paste for rubbing on meats destined for the BBQ. I have made pastes with spikes of cinnamon and cardamom for Indian inspired dishes. The point is that having a concentrated hit of flavour at hand can be a time-saver in the kitchen.

By now, most of the North American garlic crop has been harvested, dried, braided, festival-ed and tucked away in cool, dry places for fall and winter meals to come. So with all this stinking rose at our disposal, I would like to share one of my favourite recipes for preserving and using the king of herbs.

For more fall garlic recipes and to read more of my article about garlic, visit Vitality magazine.

Questions about growing/using garlic?

ASK ME!

Mediterranean Herb Paste

Make and use this in several different dishes in a week. It can form the basis for a vinaigrette dressing, soup, dips, spreads and even be used as a flavoring for savoury muffins and scones.

10 garlic cloves

1/2 cup fresh sage leaves, chopped

1/2 cup fresh thyme leaves

1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, snipped

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp sea salt

1 Tbsp tarragon or white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

Pulse garlic in food processor three or four times or until garlic is finely chopped, or pound in a mortar and pestle. Add sage, thyme and rosemary. Pulse three or four times (or pound until mixed in) until finely chopped. Add mustard and salt, pulse until blended.

Gradually add three tablespoons of oil, processing as blended. Add vinegar and remaining olive oil and process until well blended.

It's SCAPE Time!

The Scapes are Ready

Most professional garlic growers have taken off those long, goose-necked green seedheads by now, or they will do so very soon. Scapes are generally removed on or close to the longest day of the year (summer solstice), in order to let the plant concentrate on the business of growing fabulous garlic bulbs all summer.

All this labor-intensive activity means that chefs and home cooks are overwhelmed in their kitchens with the bounty of these fresh and tender vegetables because there are literally tons of them coming off the garlic being grown for market here in Ontario.

Like asparagus, fiddleheads and fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, scapes are around for such a brief window of time that I tend to use them in everything and I like to develop at least one new recipe every year. I always freeze scapes because they are so easy to keep that way: no blanching required. Simply cut into 1- or 2-inch pieces, or chop fine, measure into 1- or 2-cup amounts and pop into freezer bags, seal, label and freeze for use later in soups, casseroles and stews.

This year, I developed a Garlic Scape Pesto using some of the organic scapes so graciously given to me by Simon deBoer.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Wash scapes in cool water, drain and pat dry. Snip off the seedhead and tougher tips. You can eat the seedhead if it is very small and still tender. Cut the long stems into shorter lengths to fit the bowl of the food processor. Pulse for a few seconds until coarsely chopped. See photo above.

Add 1/2 cup sunflower seeds or pine nuts to the bowl of the food processor. [Any milder nut such as blanched almonds or pecans can be used in this mild-flavored pesto. I like to use sunflower seeds in my pestos because they are grown locally and do not go rancid as quickly as pine nuts.]

Add 1/2 cup coarsely chopped Parmesan or Romano cheese to the bowl of the food processor.

Sprinkle 1/2 tsp freshly grated sea salt over, less or none if the sunflower seeds are salted

Measure out 1 cup of the best quality hemp or hazelnut or olive oil. Cover the bowl with the lid and turn the food processor on. Slowly drizzle the oil through the opening in the lid while the motor is running and keep adding oil until the pesto is the consistency you like.

Depending on how I will use the pesto, I add more or less oil. For example, for the Garlic Scape Potatoes above, I wanted a slightly thinner sauce and so I added more oil. For a dip or spread for bruschetta, I would want a thicker consistency and so would add less oil. Play around with the right balance for you.

Wait! What's MISSING?

Garlic, of course. The green garlic scapes have a deliciously mild garlic flavor combined with a slightly nutty, almost asparagus taste. I don't add cloves of garlic to this pesto, but you might want to. Taste first and then decide. In the same way, you can add other green herbs like basil, sage, oregano, parsley, rosemary and thyme. I would recommend adding a handful of any single or combination of herbs to the pesto, chop with the scapes, add the other ingredients and then taste to see if you need more.

Green Garlic Pesto Potatoes

1 lb small or fingerling potatoes

1/4 to 1/2 cup Green Garlic Pesto

On a rimmed baking sheet, combine potatoes and Green Garlic Pesto. Roast in 375° F oven for 25 to 35 minutes, or until tender.

Wild Leeks

Foraging for Wild Food- All in one day

Here it was the first really really beautiful day of spring for us here in Bruce County and TheBigGuy and I were out along the trails. We happened to be in the right place at the right time, because there were so many things blooming. 

I was especially tickled to see the wild ginger (Asarum canadense) in bloom because that single burgundy bugle is hard to see growing as it does from the base of the 2 heart-shaped leaves. And it lasts for a very short time. We gather the rizomes of the wild ginger that creep along the top of the forest floor. It can be used in teas and dried for winter blends.

Too early for the leeks to bloom, and once they do, it is so hard to find them because the leaves have died back, but right now is the perfect time to dig. Of course we made sure we only took one shovel full from the largest patch, leaving 90% of the patch to keep growing for future years. I plan to use them in a bread stuffing for a fresh roasted chicken tonight.

Of course, always growing right near the leeks, and always in deciduous forest, is Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), the medicinal and helpful plant especially for women's ailments. We caught it at that perfect time when the yellow bloom is at its peak and you can see the small blue berries that grow larger as the season progresses.

Bloodroot, that plant that stays wrapped up in its own leaves until the afternoon sun warms it and it unfolds into the delicate white flower we saw today. Native peoples used the blood red root as a skin and fabric dye.

Guest Blog

I'll be at the Herb Companion every month with a new post.

Visit the Herb Companion and view my Green Garlic post with a Roasted Chicken and Green Garlic recipe.

Check out the Name That Herb Contest today. This herb is used in some cosmetics and old English texts tell of its use as a pot scrubber. It is a very old form of plant life. WIN a Kasbah or Oregano or Pelargonium herb handbook by correctly naming this herb. 

garlic greens

This just in from Simon:- I guess the garlic is really poking through..

I  picked  a whole bag of   garlic  green from my  perennial garlic patch  and am  drying them down .It makes  the most  wonderful  garlic  powder you can imagine .  I have Indian  friend who make  great chutneys from  green  garlic  , truly an  under used  aspect  of the garlic industry . Indians  use  garlic as soon as it emerges in the spring as I see you do .