Confit is to deep frying what Barbecue is to grilling - a slow low heat affair to preserve taste and minerals, vitamins, keeping bacteria away.
You often read in my recipes that I do not use fresh garlic, I have a glass of garlic, something like a confit that has been heated and preserved with salt and olive oil and keeps in the fridge for a long time. When I looked at our recipes I felt kind of bad that I let you wait for so long for something as delicious as this. Some people cannot eat garlic at all but this one they can and will enjoy.
Peel your garlic and collect them in an oven proof dish. Preheat the oven to 99°C.
Ok! I know I peeled 2 kg of fresh French garlic for my post but you might get really annoyed at peeling so much garlic, teary eyed and with sticky fingers, and lots of dry garlic paper sticking to them if your garlic is older than mine. I found this neat trick on Saveur and you should check it out, it's a bit courageous, but it seems to work best and is really quick: How to peel garlic in less than 10 seconds. You can also put all your cloves into boiling water for 20 seconds back into ice cold water to stop the cooking process and when the dry skin has softened, the ends cut off the garlic will slip out of its skin easily. I like the other version, its more fun!
Pour the olive oil over it and add the spices and the thyme sprigs.
Set the dish in the oven for 2 hours up to 2 1/2 hours. When done the garlic should have a pale golden color and be soft and tender, the oil only bubbling a little then you can remove the dish carefully, the hot oil is very dangerous, so please be careful! - and set it somewhere safe to cool a bit. Fill your prepared clean jars with the help of a ladle, close them and cool them quickly to help the preservation.
You can leave all the spices in the oil with the garlic, it looks pretty I even added more red pepper and if you spilled some hot oil it is best to wash the glasses on the outside under running hot water.
The garlic infused oil is delicious over salad or a tender boiled fish and the garlic can be spread on a bread as well as used in all other recipes. Your breath will be fine - promise!
For your jars I recommend adding a fresh sprig of thyme and extra red pepper maybe a fresh small chili will look nice as well. Those make great gifts, I gave one jar to my neighbor and she was a but suspicious in the beginning but today she said she is already addicted to it!
You Need:
1,3 kg of peeled garlic cloves
1 liter of olive oil
2 tsp of salt
1tbsp juniper (Wachholder)
3 tbsp red pepper
2 tsp of madagascan pepper, or black pepper
5 bay leaves
8-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
How to use it?
I would use it instead of fresh garlic, and if the recipe calls for 1 clove of garlic you can use 3-4 from the garlic in your jar: Salad dressing, pasta, on toasted bread with avocado or tomato, in your mayonnaise and endless more possibilities. It will keep fresh in the fridge for a month, if you use a clean spoon each time, but I bet it will be gone in a few days!
Please bring the confit back to room temperature before you serve it, as the oil can harden up in the fridge.
