I‘ve always been a bit of a worrier. When the wind picks up in the middle of the night I can’t just lay there knowing we are ok, I have to get out of bed to check our position. When I have an unexplained ache or pain I have been known to jump to the conclusion that it is, most probably, deadly. I get anxious when having to deal with immigration officials or airport security despite the fact that I have never once overstayed a travel visa or packed dangerous goods in my carry on luggage. Unlike Steve, my default seems to be worry first, rationalize later.
Over the years I have learned to both recognize and control my anxious feelings, but sometimes they still get the better of me. Often this happens after dark when I am ready to sleep. Even though I can recognize that what I am feeling is anxiety about an unfounded situation, it usually keeps me up, mind swirling into the wee hours.
This happened last week, and after a fitful few hours of sleep I faced the day bleary eyed and emotionally exhausted. I had a day of writing lined up but my brain felt mushy and I found it difficult to concentrate, to string ideas together. There was no point sitting at my desk. I knew it would only result in more anxious feelings about the writing I couldn’t complete that day. I didn’t need to be in my head any longer, I needed to be in my body, to keep my hands busy.
I decided I needed to make a new jar of confit garlic.
Confit garlic is something Steve started making last fall. The first time I fished one of the cloves from the jar of oil and ate it, plain, I knew it would become something we would make again and again. The garlic was soft and sweet and had lost all of it astringent burn. It was simple -just garlic cooked slowly in oil – but the end flavour was more complex than I expected. It had been transformed without much effort and that type of cooking always feels magical to me. And a low effort and magical result activity was right up my alley on this particular morning.
To start you need a lot of garlic cloves, peeled. I am talking 50-60 for a jam jar sized batch.
Despite googling ways to peel all that garlic quickly I have yet to find a technique that yields clean, intact cloves, and that’s what is needed. Besides, standing still and methodically peeling garlic by hand is incredibly soothing if you allow it to be. It is repetitive, easy work that doesn’t require an active mind, just nimble fingers and a good paring knife.
The gentle, papery sounds of the garlic skins piling up on the cutting board are calming, like palm fronds rustling in a light, beachy breeze. The heap of perfectly formed, shiny, cloves of garlic, satisfying.
After the cloves are peeled tumble them into a small pot and cover them with oil. Be generous. Make sure they are properly submerged. Don’t worry if there seems to be a lot of oil, there has to be enough to keep the garlic covered in the jar. If there is extra, extra in the end then you have also made garlic infused oil that can be used for other things, like salad dressing or to drizzle over roast potatoes. Win win. You can add hard herbs like rosemary or some chili flakes if you want to spice things up, but I think garlic is enough on its own.
On this day I used sunflower oil but you could use any neutral oil such as peanut, or canola. Just make sure its good quality. All there is to this recipe is garlic and oil, no where to hide. Lots of recipes recommend olive oil but I tried using it once and very quickly my batch of confit garlic spoiled. The cloves of garlic looked almost bubbly and the oil smelled funky. I am not sure what happened, I did everything the same as usual, but I ended up throwing out the whole jar less than a week after I made it. So I won’t recommend olive oil. If you have had success please leave me a comment.
Be patient, stir every once in a while, and breathe the garlicy infused air that fills the galley in deeply.
The next step is to put it over a gentle heat, bring it to not quite a simmer and then let it sit there, barely bubbling away until the garlic cloves begin to turn colour. How long this takes will depend on the size of your garlic and how old it is, but it will be a while, up to an hour. Don’t be tempted to turn up the heat to hasten the browning, the idea here is long and slow. The goal is a soft, tan colour but you can go deeper if you want.
When the garlic has reached golden perfection, take the pot off the heat and let it cool. Spoon and pour the garlic and oil into a clean jar. The oil must cover the garlic completely, creating a barrier against oxygen and spoilage.
When completely cool store it in the fridge. Interweb recommendations say this will last 2-3 weeks, French grandmothers would probably say months. Although I doubt you’ll have to worry. Since confit garlic is a much milder flavour you can use 2 or 3 times as much as raw garlic without overwhelming the dish. In no time at all you’ll be wanting to make some more. To prevent cross contamination, and therefore spoilage, use a clean spoon EVERYTIME you need to get some garlic out of the jar.
Anywhere that calls for garlic, calls for confit garlic, really.
I love confit garlic because it adds that delish garlic punch without the sting or afterburn that raw garlic often elicits. This makes it perfect for things like hummus and babaganosh, regulars in my fridge. It is avocado season here in Borneo at the moment and confit garlic is perfect for making guacamole. I toss it into quick stir-fries and long slow pots of beans. I also think it is delightful smeared on a slice of fresh bread. So much so that I decided to make a loaf that day.
Making confit garlic is simple enough to do without stress and satisfying enough to feel accomplished. On a day where I needed a little comfort is was a slow, simple task that allowed my mind rest but also inspired me to create. Perhaps you’ll find comfort and inspiration in these simple ingredients too.
Love,
H&S
P.S. Not to worry anyone (haha) but preserved garlic can lead to botulism if not handled and stored correctly. Although the risk is very low, it would be irresponsible of me not to mention this. The process of confit is a French, preservation method that covers things in fat to prevent spoilage and contamination and it has been around for centuries. But like every recipe you find on the interweb, be smart, do some research, and use your senses.
