Roasted Garlic

One of the reasons that I wanted to start my blog was to share my cooking "secrets" and skills with everyone. Some of these skills are more attainable than others. And that made me realize that I need to share some super basic things that will only make things more delicious. With that said, I am now going to teach you how to roast garlic!

In my personal opinion, there is NEVER enough garlic or enough lemon in anything (vampires hate me!). I actually had a waiter ask me yesterday if I wanted some water to go with my lemons. Anywho, this weekend for Passover, I made some great oven roasted potatoes (which I will share with you in my next post) with roasted garlic. I've told you all how to quickly roast garlic before or have mentioned it in at least 15 different recipes, but here is EXACTLY how I like to slow roast it (its soooooooooooooooooooo much better than the store bought kind!!!). Sometime using garlic can be scary because if you don't cook it enough, the taste will and smell will stay in your mouth for days and nobody will want to talk to you, and if you cook it too much, it burns and tastes like coal. But roasting it brings out the sweetness (oh, yes, garlic can be sweet!) and tones down the harshness that raw garlic exudes. It's simple and it will make your kitchen smell like you've been cooking for days. It's a simple touch to any dish that will be sure to impress your guests. 

What you'll need:

1 head of garlic

A VERY sharp knife

1 oven safe shallow dish

Olive oil.

1. Preheat your oven to 350*.

2. Cut your garlic in half, horizontally. Do NOT peel any of the skin off (It keeps the cloves from falling out).

3. Place each half of the garlic head, cut side up, on the oven safe baking dish (if you don't have one, you can definitely use a baking sheet, pie plate, or a bowl made out of a few pieces of tin foil folded together).

4. Drizzle with some olive oil (so it stays moist in the oven and doesn't dry out and burn.) and bake for about 40 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes. 

6. Once they're cool, just hold the heads cut side down and squeeze. The cloves will fall right out. The heat from whatever you're cooking will bring out the flavors of the garlic even more!!!

7. Try with pasta, potatoes, chicken, etc...

***the lower the temperature and the longer you cook it, the better it will taste. If you have extra time, try 275* for an hour!!!***