1 clove garlic for an entire recipe??

Love My Babes

Tue, Dec 29 2009, 10:18 am

is it just me or is it really strange when a recipe tells u one clove garlic? unless its a one portion recipe, how do ppl expect to taste the garlic if its practically not there? I made a salad recipe this week and it was a huge recipe with lettuce and chicken and lots of other ingrediants. how is one clove of garlic supposed to flavor food thats meant to feed at least 5 ppl if not more? I personally like things with more garlic so I add more anyway, but come on, at least 2 cloves for a whole bag of lettuce with tomatoes and chicken and more stuff.......

louche

Tue, Dec 29 2009, 1:01 pm

First of all there's a huge diff between dropping in a clove of garlic and dropping in a clove of garlic that's been minced or smashed into puree.

Second, not everyone likes being hit over the head with garlic. If there are other seasonings, heavy garlic wil drown them out. Just a hint of garlic will enhance them. many salad recipes call for simply rubbing the clove of garlic all over the salad bowl and not putting any actual garlic in at all.

Third, and take this from someone whose motto is "you can never have too much chocolate or too much garlic...but not in the same dish"*: if you're a garlicaholic, put in as much as your little heart desires. Recipes are, to my way of thinking, recommendations, not halacha lemoshe misinai. If you're making 14-clove chicken and want 140 cloves, gesunteh heit!

Love,
Louche of the Dragon's Breath (not to be confused with Louche of the Dragon's Bris, a tenth-Century knight-come-veterinary mohel purported to have performed this delicate and demanding surgical procedure on a slew of legendary animals including unicorns, ogres and trolls as well as dragons. )

(Also not to be confused with Louche of the Dragon's Breadth, an eleventh-century traveling freak-show impresario whose most famous exhibit was his own astonishingly corpulent form. Though barely as tall as the average medieval pocket princess--sans cone-shaped headdress--he was as wide as a mature dragon, which is to say, as big as a good-size castle, flying buttresses and all.)

*Though one of these days I plan to make garlic-spiked hot cocoa. If the Mexicans can put red pepper in cocoa, why not garlic?

Love My Babes

Wed, Dec 30 2009, 12:03 am

im not neccesarily a garlic freak but I like food that has taste and flavor. I use a lot of spices when I cook so food is flavorfull, not flavorless. its just funny to me because I know ppl who's food is very often tasteless and I feel like ppl are afraid of spices or follow recipes that are misproportioned, like a recipe I had for potatoes that called for 10 large potatoes and a half teaspoon salt?!?!!? anyone with a drop of kitchen knowledge would know that potatoes eat the salt flavor and that is extremely little and the food will be tasteless.