GARLIC: LESS IS MORE

 

Only a few cloves of garlic to flavor a simple oil sauce.

Two big wild-caught sole (each almost a pound and a half) called for a really simple preparation. I roasted them whole and served the fish with a refrito de ajo, olive oil with garlic. 

“Refrito” means “refried,” but the preparation is not actually refried. It’s more of a value-added technique—a couple of cloves of sliced garlic infuse the oil with subtle flavor.  A little goes a long way. The golden garlic chips are a bonus. Add parsley or vinegar or pimentón if you like. But a refrito is, basically, just garlic and oil. 

I needed only two or three cloves of garlic for the refrito. In three heads of garlic, I found not a single clove that was usable! They were shrivelled, discolored or hardened and, in one case, actually moldy.  

All of the garlic, both purple and white varieties, was recently purchased. I’m guessing that somewhere on the supply chain, the garlic had been kept in storage too long or subjected to heat and light. In the natural cycle, by late winter, properly stored garlic will begin to germinate, showing a sliver of a green sprout in the center of the cloves. It’s still perfectly usable. But these exemplars were long past sprouting. 

Option: remove germ in garlic.

Some cooks recommend removing the germ, as it, supposedly, is slightly bitter. Other cooks sniff at the idea. A Spanish campesino advised me to always remove the germ if the garlic is to be used raw, as in gazpacho, para que no se repite, so that it doesn’t “repeat,” in other words, so you don’t burp up garlic fumes for the rest of the day.  

How to use refrito? Spoon it, still warm, over grilled, baked or poached fish and shellfish. Spread it on steak or lamb chops, with or without the addition of some red pepper flakes. Add chopped parsley to the refrito and serve with boiled or baked potatoes. Ladle the oil over vegetables—it´s especially good with artichokes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, spinach, chard, green beans. Add diced serrano or ibérico ham to the garlic oil and toss it with cooked artichoke hearts. Add a spoonful of vinegar to the oil and drizzle it over lentils or other legumes. Slather it on wedge salad. Dress cooked rice with it. Toss it with hot, cooked pasta.

Cooked artichoke hearts dressed with refrito de ajo to which diced serrano ham has been added. 

Bright broccoli is dressed with garlic oil, finished with flaky salt.

Add chopped parsley or other fresh herbs to the garlic oil. Spoon it over boiled or baked potatoes.

Garlic oil with ham is the topping for split pea soup. The garlic oil is the perfect last touch for legumes of any sort. 

Roasted sole finished with garlic oil and parsley. Minimalist. (Photo by Sharman Haley.)

Garlic Oil

Refrito de Ajo

Use enough oil so that the garlic floats in the oil. Moderate the temperature so the garlic doesn’t brown too fast. The garlic-infused oil can be strained and saved for another use—homemade mayonnaise, salad dressing, fried potatoes.

Don’t salt the garlic oil, as the salt won’t dissolve in the oil. But, be sure to sprinkle salt over the food after adding the garlic oil. 

3-4 cloves garlic

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Coarse or flaky salt, to serve

Optional additions

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley or other fresh herbs

1 teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

2 tablespoons diced serrano ham

Red pepper flakes or a small red chile

Peel the cloves of garlic. Remove green germ in the center of the cloves, if desired. Slice the garlic crosswise, about 1/8-inch thick. 

Remove garlic and oil from the heat when garlic turns golden. The garlic will continue to cook in the hot oil.

Heat the oil on medium-high in a small skillet. Add the sliced garlic and let it become golden. Remove the skillet from the heat. Add optional additions to the hot oil. Immediately pour oil and garlic into a heat-proof bowl. 

Serve the garlic oil hot or room temperature. Spoon it over the prepared food and sprinkle with salt to taste. 

Variations on garlic-olive oil sauces:

Garlic-Pimentón Sauce (Ajada).

Garlic-Oil Dressing for Grilled Foods (Aliño).

Garlic-Parsley-Oil for Fish (Aliño).

Garlic-Herb Sauce (Chimichurri).

--WITH A “SMIDGIN” OF GARLIC

I’ve got garlic! The garden produced a modest heap of the flavor bulbs. I’m celebrating the harvest by cooking al ajillo. Ajillo is the diminutive of ajo, garlic, meaning “a little garlic,” you know, just a smidgin.

A heap of freshly harvested garlic. After it dries in the sun a few days, I trim the roots and stems and store the bulbs for use.

In Spanish, the diminutive, of course, means “small.” But it can also denote affection or a tongue-in-cheek opposite exaggeration. So, you say you’re using "just a little garlic," when actually it's lots and lots!

Today I’m making lamb chops sizzled with just a little (lots) garlic. (Other recipes al ajillo are linked below.)  I had these delectable chops in Las Pedroñeras, a La Mancha town that bills itself as the capital of garlic. There I learned that garlic over time gradually loses its punch. So when made with July’s newly picked garlic, the ration of cloves is minimal (one or two per lamb chop). But later in the year, when the flavor is milder, the number is increased (3 or 4 cloves per chop).

Lamb chops browned in olive oil with whole cloves of garlic are finished with lemon juice.

My fresh garlic keeps well for several months. Store garlic in a reasonably cool, well ventilated place away from direct light. Eventually, in the natural cycle of things, the garlic will begin to sprout. Then it's finished. Mine will be used up long before that.

In this recipe, the cloves of garlic are not peeled. They are lightly crushed, just to split the skins, and fried with the chops in sizzling oil. The skins protect the garlic flesh from scorching.

I like thick (1 inch) loin chops best. But, all I could get were small ones. These cook in an instant. Really. One minute per side, in a very hot skillet, just until browned. If you’re using thick chops, moderate the heat and cook them just until browned on both sides. That way they’ll stay a little pink and juicy on the inside. Serve the browned garlic with the chops. Peel the cloves or not. Let each person decide whether or not to eat them.

Serve whole garlic cloves with the chops.

Lamb chops and garlic are plated on a bed of quinoa with vegetables. Rice or cous cous or, Spanish style, fries, are good alternatives. Perhaps a La Mancha  tempranillo to accompany the dish.

Lamb Chops Sizzled with Garlic
Chuletas de Cordero al Ajillo

Serves 4.

Ajo morado, purple garlic.

2 pounds lamb chops, (8 to 12 chops, depending on thickness)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of thyme
10 to 12 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Sprinkle the chops with salt, pepper, and thyme. Using the side of a knife, crush the unpeeled cloves of garlic lightly, just to split the skins.

Crush garlic cloves lightly to split skins.

Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the lamb chops and garlic. Brown the chops on one side. Turn the chops and the cloves of garlic and brown reverse side.

Remove the chops to a serving platter. Add the water and lemon juice to the remaining oil and garlic. Heat until sizzling. Pour over the chops and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

Do you dare to eat the whole clove of garlic?

More recipes for using garlic:

Garlic Mayonnaise Alioli.

Chicken Saute al Ajillo

Sizzling Shrimp al Ajillo.

Mushrooms and Tofu al Ajillo.

Pasta with Shrimp al Ajillo.

Lamb Riblets al Ajillo. 

Potatoes Mashed with Garlic Scapes.

Eggs Scrambled with Shrimp and Green Garlic.
White Garlic Gazpacho.
Castillian Garlic Soup. 

GARLIC--HARVESTING FLAVOR

Garlic = flavor.

Between the olive trees on my terraced hillside are four small garden plots where I grow vegetables year-round —tomatoes, peppers and eggplant in the summer; broccoli, kale and chard in the winter; peas, favas and lettuce in the spring. But one plot yields, not exactly “food,” but flavor. That’s what I’m harvesting this month—flavor—garlic. Enough garlic to flavor my cooking for many months to come.

New harvest garlic.

Spain is one of the world’s biggest producers of garlic. And, the place that claims the title of Spain’s “capital of garlic” is Las Pedroñeras, a village southeast of Madrid, smack in the middle of Don Quixote country. A single growers’ cooperative in the town produces some 20,000 tons of the flavorful bulb in a year.

Most of it is the esteemed ajo morado, purple garlic, a variety of hard-necked garlic that has papery white layers enclosing cloves shrink-wrapped in violet skins. Purple garlic is both sweet and pungent, with a powerful bite. The purple garlic of Las Pedroñeras enjoys its own protected denomination of origin.

Surprisingly, the village doesn’t reek, even at the height of the summer garlic harvest, when bundles of garlic with their straw tops still attached are heaped in fields to dry. Not until some of those cloves of garlic are bounced into a pan of olive oil do they release that special smell.

A basket of garlic bulbs.

Garlic goes into all sorts of Spanish dishes—gazpacho, sofrito, soup, both hot (sopa de ajo) and cold (ajo blanco), sauces (notably alioli, garlic mayonnaise); stews, sautés, salads and more.

To celebrate my harvest, I decided to prepare pollo al ajillo, chicken sautéed with “a little garlic.” Which is tongue-in-cheek for “lots and lots of garlic.”

Pollo al ajillo--chicken sautéed in cazuela with whole garlic cloves.

Chicken Sauté with Garlic and Sherry
Pollo al Ajillo

This is a favorite dish in tapa bars. For tapas, the chicken is cut up into small pieces. I prefer to substitute wing joints, to avoid the bone splinters of hacked chicken. For a main course, I use a cut-up fryer—legs, thighs and breasts—preferably free range. Larger pieces need a longer cooking time than wings. Make this dish also with rabbit.

Whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic are sautéed with the chicken. The skins keep the garlic from scorching and becoming bitter. Serve the garlic with the chicken; guests can decide for themselves whether to partake of the sweet nuggets or push them to the side of the plate.

While dry fino Sherry, manzanilla or Montilla-Moriles is the traditional cooking medium for this dish, I must say that a medium Sherry such as amontillado or palo cortado adds so much mellow flavor.

Serve the chicken with chunks of bread for soaking up the garlicky juices.

Wings serve 12 as a tapa; cut-up chicken serves 6 as a main course.

A tapa dish of chicken wings.

2 pounds wings or cut-up chicken
Salt and pepper
1-2 heads garlic (10-20 cloves)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 bay leaves
Sprig of thyme
½  cup dry or medium-dry Sherry
¼ cup water or chicken stock
Chopped parsley

If using wings, cut off the wing tips and discard (or save for stock). Divide each wing into two joints. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and allow to set 10 minutes.

Lightly smash the garlic cloves to split the skins.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or deep skillet. Add the chicken pieces to the oil and fry them slowly, turning to brown all sides. Add the unpeeled cloves of garlic.

When chicken is browned (15 to 20 minutes), add the bay leaf, Sherry and water or chicken stock. Continue cooking until most of the liquid is cooked away and chicken is tender. Serve immediately garnished with chopped parsley.

Pollo al ajillo--chicken with garlic.