Black Garlic: Mission (Almost) Complete!

So near the beginning of this blog's birth we said we wanted to try black garlic. Thanks to our awesome friend Kasia, we were able to get our hands on some!

We made a black garlic tapenade - completely eyeballed and not measured in this case - with black olives, capers, black garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and a bit of salt. It was AWESOME spread atop some lightly-toasted french bread.

Black garlic tastes almost balsamic-y - definitely sweeter than regular garlic - and it is, in fact, black. Squishy too - you have to be careful not to squish it whilst peeling the skin off around it.

I still have another bulb of black garlic here... then once I've used that I can truly say our black garlic mission has been completed!

Yours in food,
-Stacey

Ingredient Alert: Black Garlic

I'm dying to try making a black garlic tapenade but, as far as I know, black garlic is not yet available here.

However, as The Globe and Mail points out, Canadians can buy it online from http://www.saucenspice.com/ for $23 per pound plus shipping, but I'm holding out hope and holding back my wallet because they also say it will soon be available at Whole Foods... I never ever shop there for my weekly groceries (recession, people - No Frills and I have gotten tight) but for specialty ingredients like this one I will make the trip over there.

Black garlic is supposed to be sweeter, richer and "less harsh" than raw white garlic, and its texture is apparently more like a soft fruit than anything else.

It's also said to have different health properties from its lighter cousin: It’s loaded with nearly twice as many antioxidants as raw garlic and contains Allycysteine, a compound that may help prevent cancer.

Can't wait to get my hands on some of this stuff... for more recipes and info on how black garlic is made, click here.

Yours in food,
-Stacey