What's not to like about garlic? It is tasty in any combination you care to imagine (including ice-cream), it cures infections and sometimes colds, it does reduce blood pressure, it lowers cholesterol, and I'm told, it repels mosquitoes and the odd vampire. To me it's a case of Clove at first sight...or smell! Being a son of Provence, garlic has infused itself naturally in my psyche and I could not live without it. To this day I maintain that the perfect herb to combine with garlic is fresh thyme, to me it's an unbeatable duo, one that packs a scented punch to accommodate any type of dish.
My great-grandmother used to chew raw cloves regularly. She always carried a lemon peel in her purse and would bite on it after eating one. No garlic breath on her!
The ancestry of cultivated garlic, according to Zohary and Hopf is not definitely established: "a difficulty in the identification of its wild progenitor is the sterility of the cultivars." There's an excellent "garlic overview" with its species and subspecies here on this site for those who'd like to know the "Full Monty". If you're selling a house there are two important smells to lure buyers: freshly baked bread and/or try frying one onion with lots of garlic, real slow.
In Provence we use three kinds of garlic for most of our dishes: white, pink and purple (ha! I bet you're green with envy!) I particularly like the pink variety which can be bought from July to March, its pungency is a sheer delight in "Aioli" and "Aigo Boulido" (both recipes below). Pink garlic keeps fresh longer, and if you're going to bite into a raw clove, that's the one. It can be bought in the USA online here, grown in China.
If you're serious about garlic then you must learn how to make Aioli, the soul of Provence, a heavily garlicky mayonnaise made using boiled potatoes as well as the best olive oil available. This can accompany just about any dish, hot or cold.
Prepare all ingredients before hand and leave them in the kitchen so they are at room temperature. If you have a mortar and an olive wood grinder then you're way ahead!
For a few helpings you will need:
20 to 30 cloves of pink garlic,
6 egg yolks,
2 medium-sized boiled potatoes, peeled
1 pint of extra-virgin olive oil,
1 or 2 pinches of sea salt & black pepper to suit, a lemon wedge.
Crush the garlic in the mortar. Once fully crushed, add the yolks, salt and pepper, then the cubed potatoes. Keep crushing in a circular movement. Now begin to add the olive oil very slowly using a whisk. Half way through, squeeze the lemon wedge into it. The Aioli must be very firm so it's best to do this manually, but if you're out of time, you can use a food processor....but, but, don't forget a food processor's centrifugal force will cook the egg yolks and heat the oil, and it will not taste as good.
Now, I come to the real flavor of Provence, the magic Garlic Soup (Aigo-Boulido). I did post this recipe once, and because it is incredibly healthy & cheap to produce, great for bracing, recessionary winters, it's worth reposting again. If you're lucky enough to come across wild garlic then purchase all you can, if not white garlic will do nicely (or pink). I freeze this soup regularly so it's ok to make a large batch.
For 8 to 10 persons:
allow 3 or 4 cloves per person, peeled.
3 liters chicken stock (or a good vegetable bouillon brand)
1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, sage, rosemary)
10 tablespoons of a good olive oil
10 thick slices of French bread
10 ounces vermicelli
6 egg yolks, beaten
sea-salt & black pepper to taste
Crush the garlic. Put in a saucepan or soup pot with the stock, salt and pepper, bouquet garni. Boil rapidly for 15 minutes. Add the pasta vermicelli and continue boiling until this is cooked. The length of time depends upon the size of the pasta used. Take away from the stove, blend in the yolks slowly.
Aigo-Boulido is served in individual bowls. Place a large slice of country bread at the bottom, add a little olive oil and pour the soup over. This soup is one of the most ancient traditional dishes of Provence. I eat mine with, you guessed, a little Aioli floating on top.
You want a quick garlicky snack for your country bread? Make a "Herbes de Provence" spread. Easy peasy:
you'll need 8 oz Cream cheese, softened, a pinch of dried Herbs de Provence, 1 tbsp of double cream, 6 garlic cloves finely minced. Mix the lot with a wooden spoon, add salt if desired, and a little black pepper.
How about a Provencal garlic chicken done in a Dutch oven? My partner cooks this almost every Sunday, our girls love it. You'll need a free range chicken, if possible, and a Dutch oven, although a good cast-iron pot with lid would do the same job, providing it's big enough for the bird to sit in it. It's best to "dress it" the day before, by this I mean to prepare the bird properly by brushing it with sea-salt & black pepper, rubbing it with olive oil and fresh thyme (dry ok) and let it stand in the refrigerator overnight. This is a great meal, as the idea is to cook the bird placed on top of vegetables and 40 or 50 (yes, that many) unpeeled garlic cloves. It's incredibly low in fat because the chicken more or less steams atop the garlic and the cloves (see pic below).
1 chicken, sea-salt, freshly ground black pepper, 40 to 50 unpeeled garlic cloves, and the vegetables: 4 or 5 carrots cut into thick julienne, 2 or 3 red onions, cut into chunks, a few new potatoes cut in half, a leek cut into sections, 2 or 3 celery stalks, a bunch of green beans or Swiss chard, some sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley and if you can find some, a few juniper berries.
Have a couple of tablespoons of plain white flour handy, and a pint of reasonably good dry white wine. And a cup of good olive oil.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In your Dutch oven or cast iron pot (with lid), lay the vegetable, the garlic. Place your bird on top and pour the white wine over the chicken, then the oil.
Seal the lid with a mixture of flour and water, and bake for 90 minutes. When done, remove from oven and allow your pot/Ducth oven to sit still for a good fifteen minutes! Don't peak, it's all good. Serve with country crusty bread and a good, young Shiraz.
The You Tube vid below caught my attention. If you like bell peppers, garlic and chicken, it's the Tuscan version. Plus, the chef's accent is to die for! That's for real.
So what's on your plate tonight, and how did it get there?
