We’re big garlic fans and we put it in pretty much everything we cook, but have you ever heard of black garlic?
Black Garlic isn’t a special variety of garlic, it’s made by taking regular white garlic and cooking it really slowly at varying temperatures, until it turns black in colour and the texture is so soft that it can easily be squashed between two fingers.
Cooking the garlic mellows the flavour, and black garlic has a mild, savoury taste very similar to balsamic vinegar, and it has none of the pungency of normal, uncooked garlic.
However it retains all of the vitamins and minerals of raw garlic, including vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin C, manganese, selenium, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, iron and copper.
Black garlic adds depth to dishes, and gives them a punch of extra flavour. We love adding a few chopped cloves to our normal Bolognese; it makes it really rich and unctuous.
For a tasty meal that looks very cheffy and impressive, simply cook some spaghetti and stir in finely sliced black garlic and good quality olive oil. We know of a chef that charges £14 for this in his restaurant!
Another very indulgent way of enjoying black garlic is also very simple – chop a couple of cloves and stir into scrambled eggs as they're cooking. It adds richness and flavour, and makes a very decadent breakfast or brunch. Best enjoyed with smoked salmon!
Our black garlic is made by Balsajo in South West London, and has been a labour of love for company founder Katy, who discovered black garlic through a friend and then worked out how to produce it herself after much trial and error!
Luckily for us she mastered the process and we’re excited to now be stocking her black garlic in store and online.
There are loads of other recipes on the Balsajo website if you’d like any more inspiration.
For more information please see:
Buy Black Garlic
11th May 2017
