Roast some garlic and put it on a hamburger. But don’t store it in your fridge and THEN put it on a hamburger, or you might die.
One day I thought about how super it would be to store roasted garlic in my fridge, always and forever available at a moment’s notice. So I roasted 14 heads of garlic, tenderly squeezed out each succulent clove, and submerged them all in oil. Immediately afterward, I learned that garlic stored in oil is a haven for botulism. Who knew?
So beautiful and innocent, yet if left in your fridge for more than three weeks, it can make you violently ill. Or worse, not even alive. Or even worse, your guests not alive.
so pretty, yet so possibly lethal
Usually I ignore health warnings from the FDA (I eat sushi and non-pasteurized cheeses when I’m pregnant, I pull a roasted chicken when it reaches a pinky 150 degrees instead of 180 degrees, etc.), but this seemed serious. So I asked a friend who has mastered the art of canning, and she reluctantly agreed that botulism warnings are not to be taken lightly.
Woe was me. How would I ever find enough ways to consume 14 heads of roasted garlic within three weeks?
Here’s the list I came up with.
1: Re-create Stilton burgers from the Goose Island Brewpub. A hamburger on pumpernickel with roasted garlic, Düsseldorf mustard, and Stilton cheese. It’s supposed to be pepper-crusted but we forgot. Oops. Oh well, we'll have to try again. Life could be worse.
2: Garlic-Lemon Butter. Botulism isn’t a concern at freezing temperatures, so this is the part where I demonstrate that I am more intelligent than fatal microbes.
3: Garlicky Cheesy Mashed Potatoes. Make mashed potatoes your normal way. Add enough roasted garlic and cream cheese to make it taste like mashed potatoes with garlic and cream cheese.
4. Dollop on a pizza.
5. Purée with herbs and sour cream and swirl into soup. Actually I didn’t do this one but it sounds AWESOME and I’m totally doing it next time don't copy me.
What else, besides popping them like candy?
3 comments:
Yeah, that was a damn good burger
Dude! I have an answer for you! Make this soup (I did this after roasting too much garlic recently--I just didn't put any raw cloves in and it turned out fine.) Anyway, it is insanely delicious, and you will love it. I made it with homemade veggie stock, and I suspect it was better that way than it would have been with chicken stock--I think you want a really light, neutral flavor in your stock, because that way the garlic just sings. And it's a great final product, great enough to make me say dumb stuff about garlic singing.
Thanks for the suggestion, Kelsey. That soup looks fantastic. I'll make it next week! And I don't think it's dumb to say that the garlic sings in this dish!
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