Black Garlic

When visiting a local supermarket I noticed black garlic for sale. Now, new and strange products and vegetables attract me like a moth to a flame. Expecting it to be a new kind of garlic, having planted pink and white garlic myself, I was surprised to find it soft and not hard like other garlic.

Black Garlic

I decided that it must be old black garlic and put it down again. I decided to find cloves for sale that I could plant myself. I prefer to grow culinary ingredients myself. Growing my own, I know where they come from and what they have been fed. Growing our own vegetables also reduces our carbon footprint.

Cleaned Black Garlic

Searching for the cloves to plant, I discovered that black garlic is not a new variety of garlic. Black garlic is what one gets when one heats the whole garlic clove at about 60˚C for about 40 days in a relatively humid environment. The result is black or dark-brown garlic that is sweeter and more acidic. The flavour is supposed to be less pungent and is more fruity, toasty and caramelised.

Black Garlic Sauce

In Taoist mythology, black garlic was proferred to grant immortality. Black garlic is great for your health. It’s loaded with nearly twice as many antioxidants as raw garlic. It also contains S-Allyl cysteine, which has been proven to be a factor in cancer prevention.

I will not be making my own black garlic but decided to try it after I found a recipe for Aubergine and Black Garlic in my cookbook “Plenty More” by Yotam Ottolenghi.

In Yotam Ottolenghi’s own words “It’s a lovely ingredient, and I really would tell people to try it, but don’t worry if you’re not sure how to use it, I wasn’t at first either”. Now he is creating the most amazing meals with it.

Aubergine and Black Garlic made at Towerwater

I can recommend black garlic. I was blown away by the flavour of the Aubergine and Black Garlic dish I prepared for an al fresco supper and enjoyed with a Weltevrede 1912 range Malbec.