Sunday, October 17, 2010

Roasted Garlic

I'm on a roasting kick lately and this time it was garlic. Halloween coming up and all, it'll keep the vampires away.  Hey, I roasted so much garlic, it'll keep EVERYONE away!

I usually just buy peeled garlic and freeze it for when I need it, but my neighbor went to the market and they were having some sort of cooking demonstration using organic garlic. It was farm grown locally on Long Island. He liked the demonstration so much he went a little garlic crazy and bought way too much. So he stopped by and dropped off a bunch for us.

We like garlic, we don't love it. Well, we love a little garlic, not overkill.  I didn't want it to go bad, it really was so nice, much nicer than the shriveled, dried, green in the middle, yucky stuff you get at the grocery store sometimes. So I googled what to do with it. And I decided that roasting it would be the best option. It would bring out the sweetness and cut the bite. And that's just what I did!


Roasted Garlic!



I think I'm in love. It's sweet, it delicious and it's spreadable. And I want it to last. So I mixed it up with a stick of butter. Rolled it in parchment and now I'll have a garlic butter sauce any time I want. Just store in the freezer and cut a slice or two any time I need some!




It's great mixed into pasta, on top of a steak, spread on a toasted baguette, on roasted vegetables. Endless possibilities!  Mine is in the freezer, just waiting until I decide what exactly what I want to do with it. And figure out exactly what my picky one will want to eat!

In the meantime, it made a really nice garlic toast!







Roasted Garlic and Roasted Garlic Butter
Printable Recipe

2 heads of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice about a third off the top, pointed end of the garlic bulbs. Remove any loose paper from whole heads of garlic as you can, don't break apart the cloves.

Place it on a large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle it with the olive oil.

Bring the foil over the sides of the garlic and twist to seal it, not too tight. Place it in a small baking dish and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes. Bake until the garlic is soft and easily pierced with a thin-bladed knife. Squeeze the roasted garlic from the clove. Wait until it cools a bit, then squeeze the cloves out. Or use a fork!

To make garlic compound butter: leave a stick of unsalted butter on the counter while the garlic roasts, so it will come to room temperature. When the garlic has roasted and cooled a bit, squeeze the cloves into a bowl, and take the room temperature butter and mash it all together. Take the mixture and plop it on a piece of parchment, wax paper or plastic wrap, then roll it up into a log. Twist the ends to tighten it up. Throw it in the freezer and slice off a piece whenever you need it. Use 3 to 6 cloves of roasted garlic per stick of butter, depending how strong you like the flavor. I used 5 very small cloves to one stick of butter.

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Joining Mary's Mosaic Monday. For more mosaic's stop by the Little Red House!

44 comments:

  1. I love roasted garlic! Whenever I make hummus I always roast a bunch of garlic cloves instead of using fresh. There's a restaurant that we like that serves roasted garlic and olive oil as a dipping sauce for bread before dinner. Yum! I'm going to try making your roasted garlic butter - terrific idea!

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  2. I love your roasted garlic! it looks amazing! You've done it beautifully! I will try to make thiis sometime soon! Thanks for sharing :)

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  3. I was just thinking about roasting garlic this morning and happened to pick up 5 bulbs at the produce store... I think the house will be smelling really great very soon:@)

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  4. I like the little mosaic!

    How much do you have left? David (lakeguy) has an awesome roasted garlic soup! I think it originally came from Bon Appetit. Yup, here it is.


    http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Garlic-Soup-with-Parmesan-Cheese-100669

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  5. Thanks for the comments :)

    hey, Cindy, I remember that soup, yes, everyone raved! Not enough left now for the soup, I didn't think of it! I saved the link, thanks!

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  6. Great idea. I love fresh garlic - and really prefer the peeled kind - but do tend to throw away too much of it. Next I won't!

    - The Tablescaper

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  7. We love roasted garlic too but I have never thought of making the garlic butter and freezing it - great idea that I will try soon!

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  8. We Loooooove roasted garlic, but have only ever had it in Il Terrazo, a very tony Italian restaurant in town. I will definitely be making this. Butter here only comes in one and 1/2 pound blocks. Is a stick about a quarter of a pound or a 1/2 a pound?

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    1. A stick is 1/4 lb. Our butter comes in one lb package with four sticks, or one lb block.

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  9. I love roasted garlic! I was just hinking the other day, I need to make some! Thanks for reminding me.

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  10. You are impressing me little lady!! Love the idea of mixing it with the butter and freezing it! Your photos make it look like you could just take a bite out of the garlic... but I suppose Larry would not care for that too much!! LOL

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  11. Pondside, a stick of butter is 1/4 pound!

    Thanks for the nice comments, I appreciate it :)

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  12. We love garlic and should make this from your recipe! Thanks so much! ♥

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  13. Delicious! I never combined the garlic with the goat cheese..we will be trying this one.

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  14. Oh, I love roasted garlic and yours is making my tiny mouth water! Love the idea of mixing it with butter and freezing it! I've never thought of freezing it before. You're so talented and smart! :) I'll be over to your house when the moon is full! :)
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

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  15. Oh, I'm going to have to try that -- it looks wonderful! Thanks for sharing at MM. :)

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  16. Hmmmm, this looks so delicious. Perhaps I'll give it a try with the garlic I've got on hand and have been wondering what to do with...

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  17. I LOVE garlic and seeing this is making me hungry!

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  18. Yummy, your making me drool for some garlic pasta!

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  19. looks so gooood! I am going to try this, thanks for sharing.

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  20. The garlic butter is such a great idea! I am glad you shared this and the recipe. Thanks :)

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  21. I can almost smell it! Thanks for the recipe! Cathy

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  22. Oh, I do love roasted garlic. This would be perfect for a quick fix!

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  23. I adore the roasted garlic!!! Actually just did some last week to make some garlic bread. I will have to use them for the garlic butter next time!

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  24. I love garlic too. I remember buying them on sale, so I peeled all of them, and the kitchen smelled garlic!

    Easy recipe, too!

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  25. I love it, but it would kill me! The smell is heavenly. Wonderful pics, Caro!

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  26. I have seen roasted garlic amny times in recipes and I have been craving about it but I haven't done anything yet. Yours looks very tempting though and I would love to try it.

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  27. YUM! The roasted garlic on the breads sounds delicious. Thanks for the recipe and the idea.

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  28. Triple yum! I do it all the time! Wait....I think I can smell that roasting from here! :)

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  29. I do love roasted garlic mashed into potatoes. Yum. Your idea of mixing the roasted garlic with soft butter if fabulous and so doable. Ithink I will give that a try soon.

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  30. They look delicious, and my two older children love roasted garlic!

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  31. Oh how I love roasted garlic and your butter is a wonderful idea to have handy! YUM!

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  32. First I visited Beringer estate and now this wonderful post...I'm gonna die of hunger and thirst :-)
    Lovely post/ Tyra

    Fragrant and Tasty in Tyra’s Garden

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  33. Thanks for the tips on roasting and using garlic...I know I'll use the butter and garlic recipe. Nice photos for your garlic mosaic...thanks for visiting my Jack in the Basket post.

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  34. Fabulous photos and mosaic. I love using roasted garlic to make garlic bread and it is so good mixed in mashed potatoes. Nice idea to incorporate it into butter for storage!

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  35. What a delicious recipe. I love garlic and I am going to give it a try. Thank you for sharing

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  36. Beautiful photos! That rosted garlic looks so delicious.

    Erika B

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  37. Yum! We love roasted garlic and are going to give this a try! I love the name of your blog :)

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  38. Well, I have to roast some garlic after reading this! You make it sound so good. Nancy

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  39. I love roasted garlic! What great photos.

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