Ingredients

• 1 clove of black garlic – chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander seed
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• 2 servings of spaghetti
• 5 ounces of chicken breast, cubed (marinate overnight with extra virgin olive oil and salt for more tenderness)

Instructions

• Cook the pasta and keep 1/2 cup of the pasta water for later.
• Heat up the olive oil on low heat and sauté the black garlic for a minute
• Add the chicken and cover.  Cook for about 2.5 minutes on each side.  Remove the chicken when done.
• Set the heat to high and deglaze the pan with the pasta water.
• Add the turmeric, salt, and coriander.  Let the liquid reduce by 25% (more or less).
• Add the spaghetti and toss well.
• Transfer to a plate, top with the chicken and garnish.

The black garlic might be hard to find, but it looks like certain Whole Foods and Korean supermarkets do carry the item.

So I finally got my hands on a couple bulbs of black garlic.  When I was searching for it months ago, I couldn’t find it, and when I’m not looking for it, it just pops out of nowhere.  Nowhere being Whole Foods.  Black garlic is created by fermenting garlic for a month under a special process where the meat softens, turns black, and the flavor mellows out into a sweet, yet light  tangy taste.

I took one bulb out of the package and brought it to my nose.  After a prolonged sniff, it reminded me of something familiar.  It was at the tip of my tongue, and after a few minutes of deep thinking, I had it.  It smelled just like Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Garlic Sauce!  While I can’t say the flavors of the two products taste the the same, they do turn out to be similar, since the jarred sauce contains fermented black beans and garlic.

Here’s a look at the packaging.  The actual color of the garlic bulbs aren’t white, but are more brown and caramelized, similar to that of roasted garlic.

Black garlic is quite palatable eaten raw, but can still be used in cooking as well.  Chances of coming across them in a store might be difficult, but it looks like Whole Foods is one of the company’s selected resellers.  Check out Black Garlic, Inc for more information.

A package of Black Garlic contains 2 medium-sized bulbs (about 36g) and costs $2.99.

Ingredients
3 cups of frozen broccoli florets
3 garlic cloves
1.5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
dash of salt
pinch of pepper

Chop the garlic into evenly sliced chips.  This lets them brown evenly.

Heat up the pan on low heat and add the olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the garlic.  Cook until the half of the garlic starts to brown. Remove from heat and let the garlic cook until the color turns golden.  If the garlic turns dark brown, it’s overcooked and will taste bitter.

Transfer the cooked garlic on a paper towel for the oil to absorb.  Leave some oil in the pan.

Steam the frozen broccoli for about 7 minutes and then sauté for about 30 seconds in the pan containing the infused garlic olive oil.  Toss the broccoli around while adding the salt and pepper.

Transfer to a plate and pour the garlic chips over the broccoli.

Here’s a twist on crushing garlic, and it doesn’t involve using a knife or a garlic press.  From Tipnut.com:

Tipnut here’s a tip for crushing garlic that once you try it, you’ll never go back to the method you are now using (I guarantee it). It was taught to me by my mother who was from Hungary and I always assumed this was a common thing there, but the few Hungarian friends I have never knew about this.

Find a rock that is smooth and is about the size of your palm. Look for one that is comfortable and not too heavy in the hand. When you first pick the rock, run it through the dishwasher a few times and it’s ready to use. If you don’t have a dishwasher just wash it in hot soapy water with a bit of bleach.

To crush garlic, hold the rock and smash it on a clove of garlic. Pull out the skin and there you have it, crushed garlic ready to cook with. Cleaning the rock is a dream, just throw it in the dishwasher utensils basket and it’s perfect to use for years and years. I keep my rock in the utensils drawer in the space between the tray and the back of the drawer, I call it my kitchen rock.

When I demonstrated this to a friend of mine, she loved how easy it was to crush the garlic but she couldn’t get used to the idea of a rock coming in contact with her food. She tweaked things to suit her better by taking a square of wax paper or a cleaned cereal liner bag and folding that over the garlic before hitting it with the rock.

My advice is to choose a smooth rock instead of a jagged surface rock, it does the best job and the results are consistent.

I’ve been asking myself why I didn’t post this recipe up ages ago.  I make this dish two to three times a week.  It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s tasty.  The ingredients couldn’t be simpler, yet the flavors on the chicken fuse really well together.

Ingredients

• 6-8 chicken drumsticks
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the dry ingredients together.  Sprinkle an even coat of the mixture all over the drumsticks.  You might have some of the mix leftover, depending on the size of the drumsticks.

Line a baking pan with foil and spray it with a layer of cooking spray.  Place the chicken on the pan and spray a thin layer of cooking spray on the chicken to help the skin crisp and brown a bit.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, this will depend on the size of the drumsticks.  The juices should run clear from the deepest part of the chicken.

~ Kin

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a recipe, so here goes.

I learned this cooking technique from watching Alton Brown on one of his Food Network segments.  It’s a great and fast way to cook that yields excellent results.  On the downside, the preparation of the dish requires a panini-press or equivalent, and something heavy, say close to fifteen pounds, to keep the panini-press closed tight.

Roasted Garlic Paste

Peel of all the extra skin.  Chop of the top of the garlic to expose the cloves.  Drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil over the cloves and then wrap in aluminum foil.  Place it on a baking pan and into a preheated 375 degree oven for thiry-five minutes.  Once the garlic is cool, squeeze out each clove from the bottom into a small bowl.  Start mashing up the cloves, I find the bottom of the spoon quite handy for this task.  There might be some hardened burnt layers of garlic, just remove them and eat them if you want.  Add about 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and mix with your fingers until a paste forms.  If it is too thick, just add more olive oil.  The paste needs to be vicous enough to be applied with a brush.  Set aside.

pics from http://www.elise.com

Roasted Garlic Pressed Game Hen

First, you will need to butterfly (spatchcock) the game hen.  Here are excellent instructions on how to do that.  Sprinkle liberal amounts of salt, pepper, and garlic powder onto both sides of the bird. Apply cooking spray to the panini press cooking plates.  Set the bird onto the panini-press that’s set on high heat.  Close the panini press and press down to flatten the hen.  Set a heavy, non-flammable object on top of the panini press to keep the pressure on for the duration of the cooking process.  I used a cast-iron grill plate.  Be careful not to hurt yourself!  Cook the chicken on high heat for about 5-6 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium.   Cook for another 6-7 minutes.  Brush the hen with the roasted garlic paste and serve with lemon wedges.

Ingredients

• 1  garlic bulb
• 1/4 of one medium red onion
• 6 golf-ball sized tomatillos, diced
• 1 ripe avocado, roughly cut
• 1/4 cup of cilantro
• pinch of salt to taste
• dash of fresh ground black pepper to taste
• Juice from half a lime
• 3 teaspoons of olive oil

Roasting the Garlic
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top-quarter off of the head of the cloves. Drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil over the exposed cloves. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes, or until soft. Let the garlic cool down. You can pick each clove out with a fork or knife. I ususally just turn it over and squeeze out the cloves. Place the cloves in the food processor.

Add the rest of the ingredients into the food processor and pulse until it reaches guacamole consistency. Serve w/ toasted whole wheat pita chips, or with lime-flavored tortilla chips.

~ Kin

I’ve been cooking garlic steamed shrimp for a while now, and I was looking for new ways to present it. The idea for this dish came to me when I was at work. Once I was able to visualize it, I scribbled it on a small piece of scrap paper. I had some trouble with steaming the eggs though. It took me a while to find the correct egg to water ratio. After 11 eggs, I had found the consistency that I was looking for.

Steamed Shrimp and Eggs

Ingredients

• 6 pieces of shrimp, de-shelled, and de-veined (I used 26-30 size shrimp, if you can find bigger, go for it)
• 4 extra large eggs or 5 large eggs
• 100 ml of water
• 1 cup of uncooked short grain rice
• 2 scallion stalks, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tbsp of rice vinegar
• dash of salt
• pinch of pepper

Rice
Cook the rice as you normally would. Make sure to use short grain rice, as the stickyness of it will help it hold the shape of the mold. Add a tablespoon of rice vinegar afterwards and mix well. Cover, and let the rice cool to room temperature. To make the rice discs, I packed the rice into a 1/4 dry measuring cup laced with nonstick spray. I then heated the bottom of the rice discs until it was brown and crunchy.

Steamed Egg
Add the water with the eggs and whisk, add in the 1 stalk of chopped scallions, salt, and pepper Pour the egg in an 8-inch steamer dish. The height of the mixture should be around half an inch. Make sure the heat is set to low when you steam it, or the egg is going to fluff out of control and overcook. It took me about 5 minutes to steam the egg. Check on it after 5 minutes to see if it is cooked. Remove the pan from the steamer and let it cool for a few minutes. Take a round cookie cutter and cut out the circular egg shapes.

Steamed Garlic Shrimp
Place the shrimp to a steamer pan and cover it liberally with the chopped scallions, minced garlic, and minced shallot. Steam the shrimp on low heat. It should take about 5-6 minutes. Do make sure to check up on it!

Stack the egg on the rice and the shrimp on the egg.

While this dish is simple to make, practice is important as the temperature of the steam used to cook the eggs can change the consistency.

As always, please make sure all food is thoroughly cooked before consumption to prevent food-borne illness.

~ Kin

I’m guessing designer Zhu Fei needed to take things up a notch in the kitchen. It has three chambers for shooting out different spices on helpless pieces of food. A handspike at the bottom of the seasoning bottle makes the nozzle retract and spray out the spice through the use of air compression after the trigger is pressed. I for one would fill the chambers with pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Attacks by bears, giant slugs, and vampires happen more often than you think.

Source: designboom, dvice