Monday, September 14, 2009

Organic Garlic Spice - You Can Taste The Difference!

One taste of our organic certified fresh dried garlic spices and we guarantee you too will smell and taste the difference than that of supermarket variety choices. Here at www.FloridaHerbHouse.com and www.SharpWebLabs.com you will find nothing but the best of the best for all your top chef herbs and culinary spices. We stock over 700 herbs and spices in our climate controlled and light controlled rooms for your cooking and diet pleasures. Take the taste challenge today! We offer several choices of organic certified and all natural garlic such as minced garlic, granulated garlic, garlic fine powder, and toasted garlic!
Garlic not only tastes great to most, it's very good for your body too. It is one of Mother Nature's most precious gift to cooks of all levels of expertise. yet it is actually a member of the lily family and a cousin to onionss, chivess, and shallotss. The edible bulb or head of garlic is composed of smaller cloves. It is a root crop, with the bulb growing underground. Garlic crops are harvested in mid-July and hung in sheds to dry before reaching their prime in late-July/early-August. There are over 300 varieties of garlic grown worldwide. American garlic, with its white, papery skin and strong flavor is one of the most common varieties. Italian and Mexican garlic, both of which have pink- to purple-colored skins, are slightly milder-flavored varieties. Elephant garlic (allium scorodoprasum), which has very large, extremely mild-flavored cloves, is not a true garlic, but a closer relative to the leek.
STORING GARLIC - Commercially, garlic is stored near 32 degrees F. However, most home refrigerators are too warm for ideal long-term storage of garlic. Instead, store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place in well-ventilated containers such as mesh bags. Storage life is 3 to 5 months under cool (60 degree F) dry, dark conditions.
PEELING GARLIC CLOVESPeeling whole cloves requires that the papery skin be removed without cutting into the clove. If the garlic is going to be chopped or sliced., the skin can be removed by pressing the clove with the flat side of a knife until the clove and skin crack. The skin can then be easily removed.
ROASTING GARLICRoasted garlic, which has become popular in recent years, is sweet to the taste and is delicious on bread or crackers as an appetizer or served as a vegetable side dish. To prepare roasted garlic, leave the head whole and cut off the tip of the head, exposing the cloves. Allow one-half to one head per person. Put the head (or heads) in a baking dish or wrap them in aluminum foil, sprinkle with olive oil or pat with butter, and season with a little salt and pepper and some fresh or dried thyme if desired. Bake at 350 degrees F until very soft and tender (about 45 minutes to 1 hour). The roasted garlic cloves can be easily squeezed from their skins and spread with a knife.
FREEZING GARLICGarlic can be frozen in a number of ways.1. Chop the garlic, wrap it tightly in a plastic freezer bag or in plastic wrap, and freeze. To use, grate or break off the amount needed.2. Freeze the garlic unpeeled and remove cloves as needed.3. Peel the cloves and puree them with oil in a blender or food processor using 2 parts oil to 1 part garlic. The puree will stay soft enough in the freezer to scrape out parts to use in sautéing. Freeze this mixture immediately - do not store it at room temperature. The combination of the low-acid garlic, the exclusion of air (by mixing with oil), and room-temperature storage can support the growth of Clostridium botulinum.
DRYING GARLIC - Dry only fresh, firm garlic cloves with no bruises. To prepare, separate and peel the cloves. Cut in half lengthwise. No additional predrying treatment is necessary. Dry at 140 degrees for 2 hours, then reduce heat to 130 degrees until completely dry or crisp. If desired, garlic salt may be made from dried garlic. Powder dried garlic by processing in a blender or food processor until fine. Add 4 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder and blend 1 to 2 seconds. If blended longer, the salt will become too fine and cake together in clumps.
STORING GARLIC IN WINE OR VINEGAR - Peeled cloves may be submerged in wine or vinegar and stored in the refrigerator. A dry white or red wine is suggested; white or wine vinegars also work well. The garlic/liquid should be kept for about 4 months in the refrigerator. Discard both the cloves and the liquid if there are signs of mold or yeast growth on the surface of the wine or vinegar. The garlic-flavored liquid and the garlic cloves may be used to flavor dishes. Do not store the garlic/liquid mixture at room temperature because it will rapidly develop mold growth.
STORING GARLIC IN OIL - Extreme care must be taken when preparing flavored oils with garlic or when storing garlic in oil. Peeled garlic cloves may be submerged in oil and stored in the freezer for several months. Do not store garlic in oil at room temperature. Garlic-in-oil mixtures stored at room temperature provide perfect conditions for producing botulism toxin (low acidity, no free oxygen in the oil, and warm temperatures). The same hazard exists for roasted garlic stored in oil. At least three outbreaks of botulism associated with garlic-in-oil mixtures have been reported in North America.
By law, commercially prepared garlic in oil has been prepared using strict guidelines and must contain citric or phosphoric acid to increase the acidity. Unfortunately, there is no easy or reliable method to acidify garlic in the home. Acidifying garlic in vinegar is a lengthy and highly variable process; a whole clove of garlic covered with vinegar can take from 3 days to more than 1 week to sufficiently acidify. As an alternative, properly dried garlic cloves may be safely added to flavor oils.

Our favorite simple to make garlic chicken recipe! A great quickie meal! Some garlic chicken recipes involve roasting a whole chicken. That's great - if you've got both the time and enough people to eat the chicken! This simple garlic chicken recipe uses chicken breast and serves two. It makes a quick and easy garlic chicken supper.


1/2 oz (15gm) Butter
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
As always, adjust garlic according to taste
2 Chicken Breasts
1/2 Pint (280 ml) Chicken Stock
Salt and Pepper
Handful fresh Parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp Natural Yoghurt

Trim the chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Melt the butter in a pan, add the olive oil. Add the chopped onions and cook gently until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.
Add the chicken pieces to the onion and garlic mixture and brown on all sides.
Add the chicken stock, season with salt and pepper to taste and add the chopped parsley. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down to minimum and leave gently cooking - uncovered - for about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces and keep warm. Turn up the heat and reduce the liquid by about half. Remove from the heat and stir in the yoghurt.
Serve the garlic chicken with mashed potato, your favourite veg and the garlicky sauce.
ENJOY!!

Thanks to all who contributed to this article!

Stephen C. Sharp
www.FloridaHerbHouse.com
www.SharpWebLabs.com

1 comment:

  1. Such a great blog !

    I am an organic gardener and grow my own garlic, onions and herbs...
    I am so glad to see that you too appreciate the value of organic living.

    I am following your blog with mine and will refer folks to you too ;)

    Have a good day !

    Are you on Twitter ?
    I am http://twitter.com/Relax_Naturally

    Organically Yours,
    Diana

    ReplyDelete