I tend to go smash, peel, slice, then swivel-chop into itsy bits for most recipes.
A lot of British chefs I’ve been watching on Youtube seem to favor [very thinly] sliced garlic for basically everything, which is crazy to me. I don’t want a bunch of wafer-like garlic chips in my shrimp scampi, yo
(Wait, maybe I actually kinda do)
Yeah, you kinda do, it’s great for things like sauteed brussels sprouts and spinach.
Downside of that approach is having to manually peel without smashing, though, which is kinda annoying to do in any sort of quantity (and I say that having tried the “shake garlic around in a hard container for 30s” “trick” that doesn’t seem to do much except get papery garlic skins stuck to my mixing bowls).
Smash-peel-chop also includes the satisfaction of smashing multiple cloves of garlic with your knife like some sort of culinary caveman.
You smash THEN peel? That sounds crazy.
As for thin garlic slices in stuff, my mom-in-law used to cook for us when she was alive (she lived with us for about 20 years). She would put thin slices of garlic into EVERYTHING… spaghetti sauce, broccoli, meat dishes… if she cooked it, she’d throw garlic slices into it.
Yeah! A quick wack with the edge of the knife + palm of other hand significantly loosens the peel; I can just basically pull the whole thing off in one piece 70-80% of the time after smashing. I don’t, like, completely pulverize the garlic, of course.
I’ve been using these for garlic. Delicious and no clean-up. :P
That crushed garlic looks like wizardry. But I will keep an eye out for it (they claim they’re sold at Giant but color me skeptical for now, as I’ve never seen them. That said, I don’t typically shop at the frozen vegetables aisle much).
You can do a gentle crush to loosen the peel and still get a reasonably intact clove for slicing.
Wait, what is this now? These things?
https://smile.amazon.com/Silicone-Suction-Lids-Food-Covers/dp/B00J8SJSG2?sa-no-redirect=1
Please tell me what are they good for and why I would want them. I feel like I need them but I don’t know why yet.
I don’t use a garlic press. I flatten it with the side of a knife and chop away. I try to avoid single-use items too. I use my fingers to divide egg yolks from whites.
It’s useful if you are constantly putting plastic wrap over the top of bowls that normally don’t have lids. It even works with my large steel bowls with a small pour spout. It instantly creates an airtight seal that you could (but shouldn’t) use to pick up the bowl with.
I don’t have that brand, I have these hideous ones
https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Viancin-Lilypad-Gift-Set/dp/B00JGBH930/
It’s a small thing but I find them very convenient when rising bread, storing stuff in the fridge, etc. I just use them all the time, way more than I thought I would. I was going to get rid of them at the earliest opportunity, glad I didn’t.
I have one of these things:
Note: I did not pay the price listed on it.
It makes a hell of a nice pizza actually. The funny thing though is my wife is always telling me to get rid of it. And the reason why is that I now call it our cornballer in honor of the arrested development joke device:
There is basically no insulation on the metal shell of the device. It goes to 550 degrees or something like that (edit: 650 actually). The hinged lid actually opens up tall enough that it can’t open if it’s under the cabinets, so it’s always on the edge of the counter when you’re using it. I can’t believe they’re allowed to sell it. lol
Thanks for the info! My wife doing the majority of the cooking these days so I’ll see what she thinks. I don’t think we get out the plastic wrap more than once a month, so…
We have a breadmaker, so that particular common use doesn’t happen often. The best use for the breadmaker is actually hands-off dough preparation.
Not a good purchase then. I just constantly wrap things with plastic wrap and this cut that down in half. One of my favorite uses is covering a bunch of small mise en place bowls all at once.
It’s the Martin Yan technique. Works great.
I am not even sure there is another sane way to do it? Like Armando the bowl shake method didn’t work well for me either. As others pointed out it’s not a full on smash as in I want smashed garlic for cooking, it’s just enough to break the paper skin so you can pull it off.
Yeah you only do Hulk Smash when you want minced garlic. For something a little more slice like, you just push until there is just a bit of give felt.
Holy shit, this brand of stuff is awesome for stuff like ginger. I used to get it, but then the store near me stopped carrying it!
Am I the only guy that has stores that sell pre-peeled garlic? I get it from most of my local grocery stores, super-cheap ($2-3 for a container) and it lasts me a few weeks.
For the record, I almost always mice/slice/etc with a knife, and have only used a garlic press once in the last 3 years, where the mice I did by hand didn’t integrate into the marinade I was making well enough, and I didn’t want to throw it in the food processor.
