Garlic should never be cooked long enough in butter or oil to take on any color at all. The flavor becomes bitter. For a pleasant garlic flavor in butter or oil to be used for saucing sautéed meat, fish or vegetes, put the garlic in the pan with the butter at the last minute and pour the mixture over the food. French recipes often say une pointe d'ail, which means a very little crushed garlic, just as much as can be picked up on (he tip of a small pointed kitchen knife.
There are certain foods and dishes that are traditionally flavored with garlic. In the Italian and Spanish cuisines many of the main dishes are so flavored. There are plenty of garlic-flavored dishes in French cuisine, too. Bouilla-bahsc de Marseille is one. boeuf bourguignonne is another. Eggplant dishes usually include garlic, and sauced meat dishes like beef or lamb stew, oxtail ragoût, coq au vin are always improved by a trace of garlic. A very simple and delicious way to prepare eggplant is to dip it in milk and then in flour, sauré it until golden, and then pour over it a sauce made by cooking butter until it is hazelnut brown and adding a little crushed garlic and finely chopped parsley. And I am very fond of tomatoes that have been split, the cut sides covered with fine bread crumbs mixed with a trifle of crushed garlic and chopped parsley, then dotted with melted butter and browned in a hot oven or under the broiler. The bread crumbs absorb the moisture of the tomatoes and the garlic perfumes them,
Those who like snails must like garlic since a strong garlic butter always accompanies these delecte little creatures. And those who like garlic invariy use it in roasting lamb. It is well to remember that lamb getting toward the mutton stage is greatly improved by using garlic in cooking. But it also adds a very pleasant flavor to young Iamb. There are two ways of using it. One is to make a few tiny cuts in the surface of the lamb with a sharp knife and insert wedges cut from cloves of garlic into the cuts. The other is to rub the leg of lamb with garlic oil, made in the following way—
Garlic Oil
Parboil 12 cloves of peeled garlic, drain, and crush in a mortar. Add 1 ½ to 2 cups olive oil and strain through fine cheesecloth. Use the oil for making salad dressings also.
Garlic Butter for Hors-D'Oeuvre
Parboil 6 cloves of peeled garlic, drain, and crush in a mortar, Add ¼ pound sweet butter, mix together until thoroughly ended, and rub through a fine sieve.
Garlic Spread for Hort-d'Oeuvre
Parboil 6 cloves of peeled garlic, drain, and crush in a mortar. Add the yolks of 6 hard- cooked eggs and mash together until thoroughly ended. Add 3 tablespoons butter, mix well, and rub through a fine sieve.
In making salad the use of garlic is a must with most gourmets. In fact cooks who don't use garlic in anything else do like a trace of its flavor in a tossed green salad. There are several ways of doing this. Proby the most popular one is to rub the salad bowl with a Cur piece of garlic. Then when the greens and dressing are tossed together 0 delicate flavor, and it will be very delicate, merely a subtle hint of garlic pervades the salad, Those who prefer a bit more flavor usually put a thin slice or two of garlic in a mortar and crush them along with the salt and pepper—or the three can be put in the bottom of the salad bowl and crushed together with the back of a spoon Then the oil and vinegar are thoroughly mixed in and finally the greens are tossed in this garlic-flavored dressing. (Because garlic's flavor is so volatile it loses its heaviness when crushed and becomes very pleasant when used this way.) The French arc particularly fond of chapons as a means of getting a light garlicky flavor into the salad. And chapons are easy to make, as the following recipe shows.
Chapons
Cut the crust from French bread and rub the crust all over with the cut surface of garlic cloves, rubbing it well so that the flavor will penetrate. Cut the crust in pieces about as big as the end of your thumb, add these cbapons to the greens and dressing in the salad bowl. and toss all together. Serve the chapons with the salad or nor, as desired.
Ancbory Garlic Canapé
Pound 16 filers of anchovies in a mortar with 3 cloves of garlic, chopped. Add 2 tablespoons soaked and pressed-out bread crumbs, a little ground pepper, and 1 teaspoon anchovy oil. Work the mixture to a smooth paste and season it with a few drops of wine vinegar. Spread the paste on slices of French bread, brushed with olive oil, and grill. Serve very hot.
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