Five Reasons to Keep Garlic in Your Kitchen
March 17, 2008
Maintaining a kitchen that facilitates cooking without special preparation or shopping for every meal is a vital part of incorporating cooking into your everyday life. If I have to run to the store to buy food to make a real dinner or just boil a pot of boxed macaroni and cheese, I usually choose the macaroni. I am going to begin profiling different foods that are important to always have on hand. At some point in the future I’ll discuss the broader ideas of keeping a kitchen stocked, but for now, here is my first tip on keeping a well-stocked kitchen – garlic.
Garlic is one of my favorite foods to cook with and I consider it an essential to keep stocked in the kitchen. When I first began cooking, garlic seemed like a delicacy that only real cooks used. Since then I have discovered the many benefits of garlic:
- Storage and Shelf-Life: Just leave it on the counter or in a cheap clay garlic keeper and it will last for a few weeks. I can normally use up a head of garlic in this time, so you won’t have to throw it out often, if at all.
- Price: Garlic is dirt cheap – around 50 cents per head (around 20 cloves?).
- Flavorful: It is quite strong and delicious. You don’t need much to spice up a food. My philosophy is that there is no such thing as too much garlic.
- Versatile: It can be used in/on almost anything: tomato sauce, garlic bread, tzatziki, vegetables…
- Healthy: Garlic is a healthy food, considered an herbal wonder-drug as an anti-oxidant and broad-spectrum antibiotic. Also, it can (maybe) treat acne and repel mosquitoes.
Garlic is delicious, cheap, versatile and healthy, and it will last a while before it goes bad on you. It is a food that you should always keep stocked in your kitchen.
Posted in Stocking the Kitchen |
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March 17th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I always keep at least 2 heads of garlic and 2 big onions in my kitchen. They are cheap and add a lot of flavor to any dish.
And they can repel unwanted people, too :-p
March 18th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Try Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, and have a really good loaf of bread, baguette style, to smear the cloves of garlic on and eat.
The sauce is also great, I’m fairly certain this is in Mastering the Art Vol I.
You forgot the most important reason: It keeps vampires away.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Onions are definitely key as well.
That chicken with 40 cloves of garlic sounds intense. But like I said, there is no such thing as too much garlic. I’ll give it a shot sometime.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
There’s no life without garlic! Love Ben’s comments about repelling unwanted people!! Ha ha!! For me, I feel disturbed when I run out of garlic. My favourite savoury flavour!!
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