Garlic: Bad For Your Breath, Great For Your Palate

When some people hear the word garlic they automatically think of bad breath. But garlic has been known for thousands of years as both medicine and food. But this is a cooking blog, not a medical blog, so I'm going to discuss the culinary aspects of garlic, some of which you may be unfamiliar with.

I like to use garlic in every dish I prepare. Garlic can be crushed, minced, grated, or roasted. When I make a whole chicken I clean out the inside and rub it with a little salt then I take one small onion, a lemon, an orange and about half of a garlic head which equals about 8 cloves and I stuff it in the cavity. When the chicken is done roasting I discard the remaining.

Although people usually associate garlic with Italian cuisine, I was surprised to find out from the U.N. that the four largest producers of garlic in the world are China, India, South Korea and the United States, respectively. Italy isn't even in the top 20! Garlic is also a main ingredient in Latin American food. I thumb my nose at the bottled Puerto Rican sofrito and make my own!

And what Italian meal is complete without garlic bread? I use parsley in my garlic bread because it tends to weaken the strong scent and taste of the garlic.

Garlic bread recipe:

• one baking pan or cookie sheet
• a tablespoon
• one loaf of Italian bread
  
• 8 cloves of garlic, finely grated
  
• 2 tablespoons of parsley
• 2 table spoons of butter
• 2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
  

Cut the Italian bread length wide and smear the butter all over it. Add the grated garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese to the butter and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown. And if you're nervous about your breath smelling bad from eating garlic bread, just make sure everyone at the table has some so no one will make fun of your garlic breath. Also, if you're worried about getting the garlic smell on your hands, just dip your hands underwater or under a running faucet and rub your palms and fingers against a stainless steel utensil like a fork or spoon. That should get most of the smell out from your hands.

I leave you with my top ten ways to enjoy garlic.

1. Garlic bread
2. Garlic butter (tastes great on corn on the cob and baked potatoes!)
   
3. Spicy shrimp with garlic and white rice
4. Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
5. Garlic fries
6. Sofrito
7. Whole chicken
   
8. Pork shoulder
9. Garlic dip with vegetables of corn chips
10. Cream of garlic soup

How do you like your garlic? Let me know in the comment area of this post and I'll try and come up with a recipe for it, or a twist on that recipe, if you already have it.