[roasted garlic paste] a few days ago, my friend nikki had a birthday, remembering her on her bday included remembering the original inspiration for my cooking with roasted garlic (which i now use in almost everything savory and it often comes up in conversations concerning my recipes...)

while my friendship with nikki was newly forming, i knew i had a friendship with a true 'kindred spirit' that would last the test of time - at the same time, how lovely that this new friendship was also the source of another friendship between me and cooking with roasted garlic paste...

i started by purchasing the biggest terra cotta garlic roaster i could find and prepared 4-5 garlic bulbs at a time to serve at dinner parties - i bought the garlic in bulk at costco and often found it a challenge to use it all up in time - it was a messy process to pop all the cloves out of the skins, but once they were in the jar they turned to this wonderful paste just by a simple stir...

the best part is the ease of cooking with this paste and how long it lasts in the fridge once roasted - i began to use it in most things i cooked and started to need it often enough that i converted to the bulk containers of peeled whole garlic cloves from costco and or sam's - it has evolved to the following...

place whole cloves in covered pan or roaster (i use a crock pot and place it outside to prevent over saturated garlic smells from permeating the house) 

pour enough olive oil to thoroughly coat the cloves (at least 1/2 cup oil with bulk container of garlic) and sprinkle salt and pepper over the top (the salt is needed to draw out the sugars in the garlic and the pepper adds taste as well as gives you a better ability to see if the coating is even)

bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours on high setting in the crockpot or 350 degrees in oven - stir often (every fifteen minutes) to prevent uneven baking and monitor the color - once the color starts to turn golden brown, reduce the temp (low setting in the crockpot or 170 degrees in oven) and cook low and slow at least another hour (continuing to stir often...until garlic turns a light caramel color)

mash with potato masher, hand blender or transfer to food processor to blend to a paste once the cloves are soft enough to mash easily with a fork - store in fridge (preferably in glass jar with screw on lid to keep freshness and odor inside) should last in fridge 3-6 months...try it in everything to which you would add garlic and see if you don't enjoy it even more in cooking because of it's milder flavor and ease of use!

   

because it matters,

jayne