Globe Style
Whenever the great French tragedienne, Sarah Bernhardt lunched at the
Savoy Hotel in London, she would order a half-bottle of Moet & Chandon and
scrambled eggs. The eggs were so good that she kept asking chef Auguste
Escoffier how he made them. Inevitably, he bowed and smiled and said
nothing.
His secret? He pinioned a peeled clove of garlic on his fork as he
scrambled the eggs. Of course if he had told Bernhardt, she might have
left the Savoy and never come back. Garlic, the most pungent of onions,
was taboo. It belonged to the raw sensuality of the south, not to refined
international cuisine where tastes were delicate. There was the problem, of course, of the way one smelled after indulging
in garlic. For the WASP upper classes, to travel anywhere in the world
where garlic was eaten was to be overwhelmed by the sharp, spicy smell of
garlic-eaters: Their breath smelled, the odour seemed to emanate from
their pores. Bernhardt certainly didn't want to discourage her admirers
with even a hint of the dreaded bulb.
Now, of course, everyone seems to eat garlic. Here in North America, the
taboo lingered until after the Second World War, broken by the waves of
immigrants from Southern Europe. In Toronto, with its multicultural
makeup, the air in some neighbourhoods is redolent of garlic. And nobody
minds because when everyone is eating it, you stop noticing the smell
(which is lucky as even breath mints can't combat garlic). Besides that,
it's good for you. Three cloves a day will give a significant boost to
your immune system. Louis Pasteur discovered that garlic kills bacteria.
In fact it is a complex therapeutic cocktail containing chemicals that
fight viruses, bacteria, cancer, bad cholesteral, you name it. And of
course, as every Dracula fan knows, garlic wards off vampires.
There are dozens of varieties. Alan Cowan, a garlic grower in Allenford,
Ont., says his prime crop is a hard-necked garlic with rosy stripes called
Music. Hard-neck garlic, named for its hard stem, is well suited to the
Canadian climate. "It likes a good heavy snow, and long cold winters,"
says Gail Szolosi, a grower in South Cariboo, B.C.
"Chefs like it," says Cowan, "because it has eight big cloves and a
strong taste" -- stronger than the soft-neck garlic, which is smaller,
ivory-coloured with many cloves. Most of the garlic in Canadian
supermarkets is soft-neck, imported from China, where it may have been
treated with chemicals or radiation to stall its growth. The Chinese are
also reported to use human sewage as fertilizer.
How do you know if the garlic you're buying is Canadian? "Ask for it,"
urges Cowan, who is eager to expand the market for his product. He sells
most of his garlic at farmers markets and festivals.
Cowan sows his garlic in the fall, and the first sprouts emerge even
before the snow has melted. As it grows, hard-neck garlic produces scapes,
tiny bulbs that can be harvested and are prized by gourmands for their
almost sweet garlicky flavour. Szolosi says to use them as you would an
asparagus. They can also be pickled. Most growers, however, remove and
discard the scapes so that all the energy goes into the bulb, which
develops in the ground.
Baby garlic, another delicacy that is growing in popularity, is immature
garlic that is picked in June before the scapes have formed. It looks like
a green onion and has a delicate garlicky flavour when steamed or grilled.
Garlic bulbs are ready beginning in late July when the leaves start
turning brown. "There is a very small window of about a week to get the
bulbs dug up," says Cowan. "If you leave it too long, it will rot." After
they are harvested, the bulbs must be hung to dry or "cured." This year's
crop is ready right about now and August is the Garlic Festival month in
Canada.
There's an annual event in Perth, Ont., going on this weekend and others
across the country from Milford, P.E.I., to South Cariboo, B.C., where
garlic growers show their wares in everything from garlic fudge to garlic
cheesecake.
"We're trying to get more people to grow garlic," says Szolosi, an
organizer of the South Cariboo festival. "So many Canadians eat garlic
that there aren't enough producers to meet the demand."
Gina Mallet's book Last Chance to Eat: Why Food Doesn't Taste the Way
You Remember, will be published this fall by McClelland & Stewart.
Good garlic
Here are several ways to use garlic, each one giving it a
distinctively different flavour:
AIOLI
This spicy mayonnaise is wonderful with cold beef, grilled calamari or
steamed green beens. It is a traditional accompaniment to bouillabaise.
3 large cloves of garlic
2 egg yolks
11/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper
2 cups olive oil
Peel garlic cloves, and puree them in a food processor.
Whisk together with egg yolks, mustard, vinegar and seasonings in a mixing
bowl. Beat in the olive oil drop by drop until the mayonnaise is a thick
fragrant cream.
GARLIC FLAN
Guests will marvel at the subtle flavour and won't believe it's garlic.
An excellent accompaniment to rare roast lamb with the jus swirled around
it.
2 garlic bulbs, separated into cloves
11/2 cups of stock, preferably beef
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a 1 quart
souffle dish. Peel garlic cloves and drop them into boiling salted water.
Simmer for 25 minutes. Drain.
Put garlic into the stock and simmer for a
further 10 minutes. Remove garlic from stock. Puree half the garlic with
1/2 cup stock, the cream, egg and salt and pepper. Pour mixture into
souffle dish. Set dish in a roasting pan filled with 2 inches of hot
water.
Bake for 15 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 225F and cook
for a further 25 minutes. A knife inserted in the flan should come out
clean. When cool, turn out the flan onto a platter.
ALAN COWAN'S
ROASTED GARLIC SPREAD
Take a handful of garlic bulbs and slice the top off each bulb so that
the cloves are exposed. Drizzle with olive oil and place on a baking sheet
in a 350 F. oven for 30 minutes. Remove, and squeeze out the softened
garlic. Use as a spread on toast or add to mashed potatoes and dips.
GARLIC SCAPE PESTO
Garlic scapes (the curly shoots that grow from the tops of garlic plants)
are milder and sweeter than the cloves.
10 garlic scapes (or 4 cloves)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups of fresh parsley and/or cilantro leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Sunflower seeds (optional)
Puree garlic scapes in a food processor. Add
parsley, cilantro and oil. Puree again. Add cheese and mix, adding
additional oil if necessary. Stir in sunflower seeds or other nuts. Toss
with warm pasta.
Garlic tips
-- Garlic has a limited shelf life, so the fresher the better. It sprouts
as it ages, and the sprouts, which are bitter, must be cut out.
-- You can tell your garlic is fresh if the skin sticks to the cloves
when you try to peel it. Fresh garlic will keep about three months if it
is stored in a cool, preferably dark place, with good air circulation.
Never put garlic in the refrigerator, where it will dry out and lose
flavour.
-- The best way to chop garlic is to smash it first with the side of
chef's knife or cleaver to release the juices, then mince finely.
-- The uses for garlic are limitless. Raw, it tastes hot and spicy. Cook
it and the heat diminishes, but not the taste. A clove of garlic rubbed
around a wooden bowl enhances any salad. Lightly sauteed in oil or butter,
it is a wonderful dressing for vegetables. Roasted garlic takes on a
mellow and hazelnut flavour.
-- Be careful because it burns easily and will take on a bitter taste.
Illustration
Garlic fever
So many Canadians eat the stinky fruit that it has lost its social
stigma. The problem is there's not enough home-grown product to meet the
demand
GINA MALLET
08/10/2002
The Globe and Mail
Metro
L5
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