Jumbo Elephant Garlic - Netted Cloves
Native of South East Asia is best described as an over-extended leek with garlic tendencies. Its Latin name, allium ampeloprasum, signifies that it is not a true garlic (allium sativum) but it has many endearing qualities nevertheless. It has a mild nutty flavour with salad onion and garlic backgrounds. Its pretensions as a garlic can sometimes be justified due to the sheer enormity of each clove, so lending flavour by sheer weight of garlic used. Roasting and baking are ideal as its size ensures that even robust cooking cannot decimate it.
Elephant Garlic Crisps!
Serves... Prep time 20 mins
The giant size of elephant garlic cloves means you can slice them into nice slivers for making crisps. The main difficulty is not over cooking them as this very quickly turns them bitter so take care with the temperture of the oven and keep a close eye as they cook. If done correctly they're a real treat. Feel free to experiment with other flavours as well.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 Large elephant clove very finely sliced
- 1 generous tbsp Sunflower oil or Rapeseed oil
- 1/2 tspn sugar
- 1/4 tspn Tumeric
- 1/4 tspn Paprika
- 1/2 tspn Sea salt
- Cracked black pepper, a good few turns of the mill!
METHOD:
- Finely slice the garlic but not so fine that it will just disintegrate when cooked. Perhaps 1/2 mm thick if possible!
- Lay the slices between some kitchen roll to soak up some of the moisture.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180c.
- Mix the oil and all the spices in a bowl and then add the slices of garlic. Mix thoroughly with your hands.
- Lay the slices out on a baking tray and place in the oven for 8 - 10mins. You're aiming to get them just slightly brown around the edges. This part of the process is very particular to avoid the garlic developing that bitter after taste. If you work with one clove at a time then you can have a few go's at getting it just right. We think it's worth it!
