Homemade Minced Garlic
Hello, my friends!
Today, I spent the day in the kitchen completing tasks that I typically do every couple of weeks. Grinding fresh coffee beans, refilling my olive oil container, refilling the pepper grinder, and making some homemade minced garlic.
I have never bought pre-jarred minced garlic from the store before because I always thought it was the easy way out and just not how garlic was supposed to be. I think I get that from my mom who always bought garlic bulbs and would mince her own. So, I always did too. Most days I don’t mind doing that, but when I am chopping up a lot of vegetables, the last thing I want to do is sit there and peel and mince garlic. I don’t know why, but I was finding that I wasn’t using garlic as much as I used to.
Rewind to about a month ago, and Bobby Parrish from FlavCity (check out his Instagram account- he is extremely knowledgeable about ingredients in foods and beauty products and I learn so much from him), introduced his “liquid gold” recipe. All it was, was minced garlic and olive oil. How simple! I knew I had to try it, and I’m glad I did.
First, buy a bunch of garlic. I went to Costco and they had a large bag for only $5. One thing I learned from Bobby, is to make sure you buy garlic from the U.S. Some garlic comes from China and is actually bleached to make it look white. You can tell this by looking at the base of the bulb, where the roots are. If the roots are white or cut off, then it is bleached and comes from China; if the roots are brown and still intact, then it is not bleached and more than likely comes from the U.S. Check out the YouTube video below if you want to learn more about this from Bobby himself.
Once you have about 3-4 bulbs of garlic or really however much you want to use, peel all the cloves. This is the longest and most tedious step. It took me about a half hour to peel about 5 bulbs and I had to wash my hands frequently to remove the stickiness.
After all your garlic is peeled, place the cloves into a mini food processor and give it a good pulse. You are just going to blitz it a couple of times to break down the cloves. Add some olive oil and pulse again. Add enough olive oil to desired thickness and consistency - you are essentially just coating the minced garlic with oil to preserve. Place it in a jar and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. It will last a couple of weeks refrigerated.
I find that when I make this ahead of time, I actually use it more and it is just so convenient to have! Additionally, the flavor is great and doesn’t have that harsh burning sensation that raw garlic does, which is why I tend to use more of it in a dish than I would with fresh minced garlic.
I hope you guys try it out and let me know what you think!
Cheers,
