tried something new to me, to preserve garlic

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by dawn64, Jun 25, 2015.

  1. dawn64

    dawn64 Gardener

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    for the past several years I have been letting my garlic dry out and then spend HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS topping and tailing and peeling the dried garlic and freezing the cloves, for later use.
    We all know how long it can take to get the skin off 1 garlic CLOVE, well we had a carrier bag FULL of garlic bulbs.
    Well today it ALL CHANGED, we have picked the garlic, cut the stalks off and brought it straight home, washed it topped and tailed it, ( NOW HERE IS THE INGENIOUS BIT)
    squeezed it between fingers and thumb and the outside layers just came off
    YEAH, JUBILATION , TIME TO DANCE AROUND THE KITCHEN, PHONE A FRIEND AND LET THE WORLD KNOW :)
    None of this fighting with the dried outer skins :)
    Put them in the blender with a drop of oil, blitzed it, put it into a freezer bag,flattened it out, put it in the freezer,
    YEAH, all done, and only took 30 minutes.
    So now I have garlic ready to use, none of this putting it in the gravy (or what ever) and then going to find it to squash it once it is cooked (nothing worse than a huge clump of garlic in your mouth)
    One thing I must mention is this garlic HAS to be cooked, due to the fact it was mixed with oil
    I have to give credit where credit is due, this time saving technique was Stephens idea
    I knew I loved him for a reason ha ha
     
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    • "M"

      "M" Total Gardener

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      Thank you @dawn64 (and Stephen) for sharing this wonderful idea with all of us.

      Just a couple of queries ...
      ... which stage are you cooking it and ... how are you cooking it? :scratch: :dunno:
       
    • dawn64

      dawn64 Gardener

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      Sorry if I did not make myself very clear,
      It is not cooked, it has been frozen,,,,,,raw.
      this way I can use it as and when I want, straight from the freezer, in soups, stews, sauces, gravy, stirfrys,
      basically anytime you would use fresh garlic to cook with, I would use this,
      Hope I have cleared that up for you :)
       
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      • JWK

        JWK Gardener Staff Member

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        I just string them up in the shed, once dried they keep for months.
         
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        • Scrungee

          Scrungee Well known for it

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          And me, but when I notice the first cloves starting to go soft I'll then freeze whole cloves [1] plus chop some up and mix with butter to freeze in clingfilm wrapped portions which enables them to be used both for cooking and in making Garlic Bread.

          [1] Normally use a press on fresh cloves, but use a tube peeler for de-skinning cloves for freezing.
           
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