The right way to cook with garlic.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this cucumber salad, so I finally caved and made it 😋

I subbed the white sugar for local honey, added some fish sauce and rice vinegar (in addition to the white)

Imma let it chill in the fridge for a few hours while I do my workout, a castor treatment on my scalp and some chores.

I say this with no exaggeration:

THIS SHIT SLAPS.

Still has great crunch, not at all soggy, it's got that umami flavor going. The only thing is I should have been more heavy handed with the chili pepper.

I had been trying for years to replicate a Korean-style cucumber salad I had in a lovely little restaurant ages ago, with no success.  THIS IS IT.  I am delighted!

Taste: Four out of five

Difficulty: Low

Time:  Low moderate

Alterations and notes:
- Being on a low sodium diet, I skipped the step of salting the cucumbers.
- Being a wimp, I cut way down on the chili pepper.
- I considered using toasted sesame seeds, and will try it next time.
- I used regular cukes because they’re cheaper.
- 2 TB garlic is about 2 large cloves/3 small cloves, minced or run through a garlic press.

if you are only a good cook if you have access to premium ingredients at whole foods or above prices then you arent really a good cook

The parmesan is the only one that's even slightly questionable.

Salt? Are you shaming people for using store-brand salt???

If I had to use three of those, I’d pick the cheese before I picked the garlic - it’s nothing like real parmeggiano but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that it’s a different cheese. Meanwhile I have never found a minced garlic that works out well.

You should ask other people in the comments about what type they use, they've apparently had some success. I've had excellent food made with garlic-ginger paste, but haven't replicated that myself.

Cheese powder as per box-mix macaroni and cheese is great, fwiw.

I have no idea who figures out how to make sure their recipe uses a whole number of lemons. Usually I want a small amount of lemon, for tea or artichokes or salads. Which is easy to take from a refrigerated bottle while leaving the rest for later, but hard to take from a lemon while leaving the rest for later.

I LOVE my jarred garlic. I struggle with the fine motor skills involved in peeling and cutting tiny, sticky garlic cloves. Measuring it out by the spoonful is so much easier. (Also, I found a brand that uses vinegar and salt as a preserving agent instead of citric acid. BIG improvement in flavour)

I once tried one of my most beloved recipes with real parmeggiano because I could now afford things like that, and honestly it tasted better with the canned parmesan.  Food snobbery is just another way to gatekeep.

hack?

that’s just garlic confit

Seriously, anyone who didn’t know about how to make this didn’t have parents/relatives who cooked.

Y’all need to pick up a cookbook.  Or watch Julia Child.

Sorry everyone didn’t grow up in a household where their caretaker cooker or knew how to cooked. Some of us didn’t grow up in a household with fresh fruits and produce. Some of us didn’t have the money to spend on a shit ton of garlic.

So how about enjoy the video instead of being a snobby bitch.

Also Julia Child would be ashamed of people behaving like that. Her whole deal was just... Making cooking accessible for people. Hell, she had a whole segment devoted to "oh, nobody taught you how to cook eggs? Here's how you do that." A significant part of her show was basics that people take for granted (and though the equipment may have changed somewhat, its still pretty helpful). My dad had busy parents who didn't have the time or knowhow to cook, and he learned from watching Julia Child. French cooking made easy, here's the basics everyone assumes you know but never taught you. And ever since, he's had a love of cooking.

Stop putting people down for not knowing basics. Everyone is a beginner at some point or another.

No food snobbery allowed in this house! 

hack?

that’s just garlic confit

Seriously, anyone who didn’t know about how to make this didn’t have parents/relatives who cooked.

Y’all need to pick up a cookbook.  Or watch Julia Child.

Sorry everyone didn’t grow up in a household where their caretaker cooker or knew how to cooked. Some of us didn’t grow up in a household with fresh fruits and produce. Some of us didn’t have the money to spend on a shit ton of garlic.

So how about enjoy the video instead of being a snobby bitch.

Also Julia Child would be ashamed of people behaving like that. Her whole deal was just... Making cooking accessible for people. Hell, she had a whole segment devoted to "oh, nobody taught you how to cook eggs? Here's how you do that." A significant part of her show was basics that people take for granted (and though the equipment may have changed somewhat, its still pretty helpful). My dad had busy parents who didn't have the time or knowhow to cook, and he learned from watching Julia Child. French cooking made easy, here's the basics everyone assumes you know but never taught you. And ever since, he's had a love of cooking.

Stop putting people down for not knowing basics. Everyone is a beginner at some point or another.

I grew up in a healthy-eating cooking-skilled household and I did not know that this existed.

Just shut up and spread the TikTok

So confit is a way of cooking things, and it does marvellous things to many things.

You put stuff in oil and slow cook it. That’s confit. Garlic confit? Put it in oil and slow cook it. Chicken confit? You put it in oil and slow cook it.

(side note: confit historically means to preserve by cooking at a low temperature, (which often also meant a cure prior to cooking). So Fruit confit is fruit that’s been cooked at a low temperature in a very concentrated sugar solution, not in oil. Nowadays, confit usually just means cooking slowly in oil outside the context of fruit and does not imply a curing process)

Compared to deep frying, almost no moisture is lost, and the flavour is not changed via the maillard process because it doesn’t happen. There is no charring or searing done to the meat/whatever you’re confitting.

For veg in general, to confit them will cause them to become ultratender, as fibers and stuff will partially break down, cell walls will collapse, but no moisture will be lost. And their flavour will mostly remain; for garlic in particular, the hot garlicky taste, the result of the allicin, which is a result of crushing or chopping the garlic, will never come out. The chemicals will break down under that amount of heat.

The oil does not terribly seep into the food by the way; it’s already saturated with water, and unless that water leaves, the oil doesn’t have a place to seep into. It’s saturated already, and the result of connective tissue breaking down, or fibres breaking down, is less room for fluids. Which is why a carrot can be nice and dry, go into a hot oven, and come out floppy and moist, as the water inside can no longer be held by its inside, and available, unabsorbed water = wet.

You do get a thin layer of oil coating the outside of the food.

This means that confit’ing a food item is actually very close to steaming that item at a particular temperature, or cooking it sous vide; in either case, the item does not dry out and slowly reaches its final temperature.

@brattylikestoeat the damned garlic wars was back on my dash this morning.

I like this post. Video with technique. Somebody being a dick. Other people saying don’t be a dick. Super helpful science dump that I enjoy a ton.

I have nothing more on this topic than what’s been said above, so just adding this:

This blog does not believe in food snobbery.