🧄🧄🧄~A Few Words From Susan~🧄🧄🧄 If your holidays lean Italian, garlic is the quiet constant that makes the kitchen feel like home. You hear it meet warm oil, you smell the promise of supper, and suddenly the house slows down. At my table it anchors sauces and sides all season, but the pleasure
is really yours, the way a clove can turn everyday ingredients into a celebration. This week’s article shows you how to let garlic support the menu rather than steal the show, helping you choose between a quick sizzle for bright flavor or a slower roast for gentle sweetness so each course tastes balanced and
festive. In our video, “Green Beans with Garlic Brown Butter,” you will see exactly how to toast the garlic to the right shade and fold it through the beans so
the flavor coats every bite without turning bitter. For tools that earn their place, we are featuring the Cestari Garlic Peeler at 50% off, which helps you slip skins off quickly, keep your hands free of strong aroma, and move prep along when company is on the way. Thank you for inviting me into your kitchen this season, and may your table be warm, generous, and definitely garlicky. Best, Susan
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Holiday-Ready Green Beans in Just Minutes
See exactly how to brown butter fast, press the garlic for bigger flavor, and toss in pre-cooked green beans for a perfectly timed side. Scales per person, tastes like celebration, and never moves from brown to
burned.
Tip of the Week To bloom garlic into sauces, warm it gently in butter or olive oil, then add liquid like broth, lemon juice, or
pasta water to carry the aroma through the dish. This builds body without overcooking the garlic.
A Cook’s Guide to Understanding Garlic Strength: Choosing the Right Cut for the Right DishGarlic behaves differently depending on how you cut it. The flavor can be mild or intense, and choosing the right preparation makes a noticeable difference in both everyday cooking and the holiday dishes many of us return to year after year. Once you understand how each cut performs, it becomes much easier to control the results. Whole cloves give you the softest flavor. They are ideal for long-cooked sauces, braises, and soups where you want the garlic to stay in the background. When I warm whole cloves in olive oil
for a seafood pasta on Christmas Eve, they add a gentle base note. I usually remove them before finishing the dish so the garlic never becomes dominant. Sliced garlic has a clearer presence. The thin pieces cook quickly and take on a mild sweetness. This works well in simple sautés, especially with vegetables. The key is to watch the pan. Once sliced garlic browns too deeply, it becomes bitter, and that flavor carries through the entire dish. Minced garlic is stronger. The smaller pieces expose more surface area, which means more aroma and more bite. It is useful when you want garlic to be distinctly noticeable, such as in marinades, dressings, or quick sauces. Pressed garlic is the most intense. For my green beans
with brown butter and garlic, pressing the clove creates tiny pieces that blend immediately into the butter and coat the beans evenly. The result is full garlic flavor without any effort.
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Nora of Flagstaff, AZ shares, “Steep lightly smashed cloves in warm olive oil for 5–10 minutes off the heat,
then strain. The oil picks up gentle, sweet garlic flavor for drizzling on vegetables, grains, or grilled bread without any raw bite.” Calvin of Ithaca, NY suggests, “Freeze peeled cloves in a single layer, then transfer to a bag. Roast them straight from frozen, or microplane the frozen cloves into soups where they melt in cleanly.” Marina of Bend, OR
shares, “For fast, even flavor in marinades, microplane the garlic into a teaspoon of oil first so it disperses without clumping. That thin coating helps it spread through citrus juice or yogurt smoothly” Elliot of Mobile, AL adds, “When you want only a whisper of
garlic, rub a cut clove around a warm salad bowl or across hot toast and discard the clove. You’ll get aroma and flavor without raw bits competing with delicate greens.” Barbara of Kenosha, WI notes, “If a clove has a green sprout, split it and pull out the germ for a milder sauce or aioli. Save sprouted cloves for cooked dishes where the stronger flavor mellows with heat.” |
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