Recipe: Garlic Confit, What Is It And What Do You Do With It?

There are very few people who don’t like garlic, and you know who you are. The rest of you keep reading.
The other night the Accidental Locavore took a class at Macy’s DeGustibus* with Michael Psilakis. He’s well known around New York for some amazing Greek restaurants, Kefi and (formerly) Anthos. The food of course was delicious, starting with an amuse bouche of tiny grilled pitas with hummus, eggplant, and tzatziki, and ending with a grilled watermelon. One of his key ingredients is a garlic confit.

• What you do is take a lot of garlic cloves, peeled (this is a perfect use for those large containers of peeled garlic from Costco) put them in an ovenproof dish. If you don’t have the already peeled cloves, separate the cloves from the heads, put them in a stainless steel bowl, cover the bowl with another stainless bowl and shake. Voilà, peeled garlic!
• Cover them with olive oil (not necessary to use the good stuff, just a decent cooking oil).
• Place the dish in a 300 degree oven for about 30-45 minutes until they are soft and golden.
• You can keep the cloves, and the oil for future use, or:
• Take some of the garlic and puree in a food processor or blender.

Michael Psilakis uses the pureed confit in almost everything. It works as an emulsifier which means it will thicken sauces and keep them from separating.  Great for pasta sauces, and amazing for mashed potatoes! Try using it and some of the oil for salad dressing.

What else will you use it for? I made a puree of the cauliflower I got from my farmbasket, with some cream and added the confit…it’s like mashed potatoes without the carbs.

*Thanks to my aunt for the very generous gift of classes!