Garlic confit with garlic oil to boot.

A geat way to perserve garlic if you have a heap left from a bumper harvest or, as in my case, you are about to go on holidays and still have a heap of garlic in your larder. The added bonus of this confit garlic is that it means you will have a great supply of garlic infused oil to liven up a salad dressing, steak or whatever.

It’s a different flavour to raw or fried garlic. It’s mellow and sweet… just like your first hippy girlfriend in year 9. As wanky as it may sound, it will add an extra dimension to a dish when used in conjunction with it’s old friend – fresh garlic.

Try making aioli with a combination of fresh and confit garlic (or just try making aioli full stop if you havn’t done it before). Beautiful. Add to a soup or stew for something a little different. Blitz with some butter, rosemary and capers for a great butter to dress a steak or fish… the list goes on. Limited only by your imagination… however feeble or extreme that may be.

CONFIT GARLIC

Whatever garlic you may have, slice the rooty little end off because no-one wants a dirty little root

Enough oil to cover, half olive oil, half blended or vegetable oil

A few sprigs of thyme and rosemary

Coriander seeds

Peppercorns

Bay leaf

Dried chilli

• Simmer this lot on the stove on a low heat for 15-20 minutes. The garlic should just start to colour and pop out of it’s bulb
• Turn heat off and rest on stovetop for 1hr to infuse and make lovely
• Pour the lot into a jar
• Use on everything until you are sick of it in a week or two, or put it in the fridge for a couple of months

As you can see this is a pretty strict and in-depth recipe. Be sure to follow it to the letter…