In The Dark Of The Bulb

One of my greatest culinary joys is finding an old familiar ingredient or dish in a completely new form. I can remember, for instance, the first time I tasted firecracker pickles. The idea of dropping some hot peppers in with the cukes to make the end product a mouth-searing delight set me off on all sorts of exploration.

Likewise, I spent months figuring out all the ways I could use dark toasted sesame oil. I'd used the light stuff before, but one sniff of that insanely fragrant dark oil and I was sprinkling it on everything short of corn flakes.

So you can imagine how my ears perked up when Hazel Kelly at Frieda's, Inc. told me about black garlic. Black garlic is made by taking whole fists of garlic and putting them through a one-month high-heat fermentation process. The Koreans are masters of the process, which is no surprise coming from the culture that gave us the ne plus ultra of fermented vegetables: kimchi.

The result of the process is garlic that you can eat straight out of the skin. In fact, in my experimentation, it's best uncooked or at most lightly warmed. The flavor has been described by others as "umami," but I'm still deciding if I'm going to allow myself to use that word as it's a bit too trendy for my lexicon just yet. Imagine instead if you carefully caramelized a Vidalia or Texas 1015 sweet yellow onion and added just a sprinkle of garlic juice and perhaps a few drops of beef stock. You're in the ballpark.

If you've ever made your own roasted garlic at home, the texture and handling of black garlic will be very familiar, although the black garlic cloves are a bit more sturdy than roasted ones.

How to use them? The options are quite possibly innumerable.

First off, you'll want to buy two fists, because you're going to eat most or all of the first one straight. Trust me on this. The flavor is that addictive. My 4-year-old son, whose idea of edible vegetables pretty much begins and ends with steamed broccoli, sampled a clove and almost wheedled me out of my remaining supply. He calls it "candy garlic," which is not too far gone from accurate.

(Mental note: Try black garlic puree on vanilla ice cream. The Iron Chefs would do it!)

For appetizers, slice the cloves and make bruschetta with sun-dried tomato and feta cheese. If you're really daring, scatter a few slices on a plate of nachos and watch the surprised looks when lucky eaters get a taste. Be ready with further slices if you don't want to anger your guests.

Mix black garlic into a vinaigrette using your food processor and you'll have a dressing that will sing on everything from asparagus to the aforementioned steamed broccoli.

My favorite dinner use so far is to put slices atop a margherita pizza right when it comes out of the oven. The residual heat warms the slices nicely and releases all their flavors without burning. Remember that you're dealing with some fairly intense natural sugar here, so be very gentle with the heat lest you burn the goods.

Taoist mythology says that black garlic grants immortality, but there's no dosage given. I plan on eating at least a fist a week just to make sure I get enough. You can find black garlic in the produce section of many supermarkets and in most Asian markets.

Garlic Delight

Where black garlic is a mellow, sweet flavor, Frieda's other garlic offering, Garlic Delight, brings a garlic punch that will please even the most hardcore allium sativum devotee. Made by a traditional Lebanese method in which fresh garlic is pureed with oil, lemon juice and salt, the result is a smooth slightly loose paste that will work for anything from dips and spreads to sauces and marinades.

The original flavor is one of those things you'll have to taste to believe. The garlic flavor is intense, stopping just shy of being too strong. Use it like (or add it to) your favorite pesto and toss it with hot pasta for a great lunch. Rub a couple of tablespoons of it into a pork loin before roasting along with your favorite spices.

The chipotle and sun-dried tomato flavors work in dozens of ways on appetizer recipes, and are great straight out of the tub. Try the chipotle on a burger straight off the grill, or the sun-dried tomato applied with a light touch on some grilled salmon.

My favorite, though, is the green olive. Marrying the intense garlic hit with the salty goodness of green olives hits my palate right in its sweet spot. Yes, there are tons of culinary applications here, but I honestly haven't done anything with it but eat it straight out the container with crusty bread. I'm sure I'll be moved to experiment at some point, and I'll let you know when I do.

Garlic is a good source of vitamins C and B6, and it's got a laundry list of minerals to offer as well. Since I haven't yet finished my medical degree (or started it), I won't weigh in on the reported benefits of garlic as a cholesterol reducer, blood pressure helper, inflammation reliever and for all I know common cold cure, but the claims are out there.

The fact is that garlic tastes good. And black garlic will blow you away with its complexity of flavor. We're all about the eating here, not the analysis, so go forth and consume.

Got a question? Comment? Topic you'd like to see covered? Drop me a line, anytime!