I walk into Gordon’s Food Store – it’s a food service distributor that also has stores that serve local restaurants when they run out of goods before their scheduled delivery, or for those who don’t want to pay for delivery (if that’s the case) and for the locals in the neighborhood. Like me.
I see two bags of garlic in the cooler. One is a huge bag of peeled cloves, the other a bag of roasted garlic – lots of roasted garlic – the most roasted garlic I’ve ever seen in one place. I can’t buy both – no money, no room in the refrigerator. I buy the roasted garlic.
Oh my goodness, I am in garlic heaven. It doesn’t taste quite like my own roasted garlic. Maybe because it’s in a bag, that the flavors become more roasted tasting, but they are strong. Not garlic strong, roasted strong.
Still, I like it. I use it in a lot of dishes, in a lot of ways. It lasts a long time. I still have it. I imagine that restaurants must love that they don’t have to roast their own. I suspect that they would use a lot less than I use in a given recipe, because if I ran a for-profit kitchen, I’d be scrimping on product too.
It tends to steal the show, no matter what you put it in, so you have to match it with complimentary ingredients, and use less. I mean, who puts a half cup of roasted garlic in anything? Me. What’s that? Two whole bulbs or more?
Trial and error. Like a kid in a candy store, I tend to overdo it. But I like it.
Next time I’ll buy that huge bag of peeled, raw garlic cloves.
Try this recipe out: ROASTED GARLIC SPINACH PESTO
AFC BULL MARKET KITCHEN™ FREEDOM ON A PLATE 