Rip Van Rabel Finds Fresh Summer Garlic

Have I been asleep for the last forty years? Why didn’t I know about fresh summer (or spring) garlic?????

If you are like most cooks, garlic is a staple ingredient in your kitchen for salad dressings, pastas, grilled meats, soups, cooked vegetables and all kinds of sauces. It certainly has been in mine. Because it is so readily available in many forms, I have bought and cooked it fresh, dehydrated, as a juice, preserved in vinegar, powdered, mixed with salt and in tubes. Good old garlic.

Four or five years ago I grew some in my garden, but after picking it too soon and unsuccessfully drying the heads, I lost interest. Why bother when it is so plentifully available in every market?

Then this June at a farmers market I noticed a whole table of fresh garlic heads with their distinctive purple striped heads and long stems, bundled in bunches of three, priced for $1. Why not try again?

When I got home I cut one head from its stem and pulled 3 cloves off the bulb. The first thing I noticed was the pliable skin that popped off each clove easily and in tact, instead of pulverizing into a flaky mess on the cutting board, around the counter and ultimately floating to the floor. Each skinned clove also glistened with moisture and smelled delicate, not pungent. The moisture made slicing easy and the slices didn’t stick to the knife blade.

With a small taste of one slice I discovered that it had a mild taste with no bitterness. I then test cooked the cloves several ways and compared them with my usual prepared and “fresh” garlic from the grocery store.

I blanched two cloves and mashed two others, then sautéed them separately in olive oil. All of it had a delicate flavor and no bitterness. I then tested my grocery store “fresh garlic” and realized how sharp and bitter it tasted.

Next I tasted all the other forms I had on hand: preserved minced and mashed, garlic juice, dehydrated minced and sliced garlic and garlic in a tube. Each one contained a similar level of pungent odor and bitter taste.

Finally, I decided to freeze the fresh garlic. I peeled the cloves, thinly sliced them, wrapped the slices tightly in plastic wrap and put those into small zip lock plastic bags that I pressed on the outside to eliminate air.

Three weeks later the garlic slices were still juicy and delicious.

Fresh garlic will be available in farmers markets through September. Most that I have seen at farmers markets are at Hmong Chinese farmers’ stands, but I also bought some perfect heads from Oxbow Farm.

Want to test it? Buy some, peel it, slice a clove or two into 6-8 thin slices, sauté it in olive oil at low temperature for 2 or 3 minutes and toss it with freshly cooked, hot pasta. Add salt and pepper, maybe a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh basil or Italian parsley and freshly grated Parmegiano Reggiano. I’ll bet you will be at a farmers market within a week.