Using the side of a chef knife, or even just the palm of your hand, press down firmly on an unpeeled garlic clove until you hear it "pop" a little. What you'd accomplished is kind of like separating the peel from the clove. It should peel right off quite easily and you shouldn't have to dig too much into the garlic or make your hands to smelly! If its still a little hard to get off, you can slice off the base, root part and it should help it release some more.
I use a LOT of garlic at my house. (Smile.)
In my city I can buy garlic cloves already peeled! The vegetable sellers have them in huge bags and I can just buy it a scoop at a time. Then I'd chop it up in my food processor, mix in a bit of oil, and then freeze it in silicone ice cube trays or mini muffin pans. That made it easy to pop them out and keep them in a ziplock in the freezer. Then I'd put a couple of the cubes in a small jar in the fridge so that I always had several T of chopped garlic ready to go when I needed it. It ended up being just like those jars of chopped garlic you can buy in the US!
ReplyDeleteThe above comment is genius! I hope to find those in my city!
ReplyDeleteSince being on Home Leave, I've been watching lots of cooking shows. I don't mind mincing my garlic with a sharp knife after using your trick to peel it, but one of the TV chefs uses a microplane. Genius! It's faster, and I don't like biting into big chunks in my food, so this prevents that. :)
Very impressed that you squeezed in a post before leaving the country, Sara Beth! Good to know about those garlic peelers - was always skeptical. I totally do your method as well and always slice the bottom off first before pressing. Do you use a garlic press? Love me some garlic too ;)
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