This week, we are going to talk about how to make black garlic benefits at home! It’s an incredible culinary flavor that many people don’t know much about. But it’s so delicious, you will want to cook with it immediately.
Black garlic is a superfood ingredient that contains powerful antioxidants and nutrients. It can be used in cooking as a raw material or dry powder. The key thing to remember when using black garlic is to only process it for a short amount of time to prevent it from breaking down too quickly.
It will lose its taste and nutritional value if processed for too long. There are some tips and tricks for making your own at home, so let’s get started!
What is white (or light) garlic?
Most fresh garlic sold in stores has been exposed to oxygen and therefore does not preserve well. When baking, boiling, broiling, or toasting foods like bread or pasta, un-protected garlic may turn brown, become soft, or even burn due to exposure to high heat.
This isn’t desirable because color and texture are important factors in most recipes. To avoid this, manufacturers remove all the sulfur molecules from the cloves before processing them.
These sulfur molecules keep other parts of the garlic stable and also contribute to the overall flavor.
Peel it
The next step in making black garlic is to peel off all of the skin. This can either be done manually using your fingers or with an easy way!
In the past, people would use special machines to do this for you. These days, there are several ways to quickly and easily remove the skin from the cloves of garlic. You can pick one of these methods and stick to them until the end!
The most important thing when doing this is to make sure you don’t pull out any bits of skin that could potentially remain attached to the raw garlic bulb. If you keep pulling away pieces, then you will have to start over again!
Once everything has been peeled, you can now process the rest of the black garlic like normal white garlic bulbs.
Boil it
If you have never cooked with black garlic before, then boiling it is your next step! To make bok choy or broccoli florets or other vegetables in recipes like stir-fry dishes, cook one cup of black garlic per one pound of vegetable.
Just remember that brown sugar will burn slightly when mixed with raw black garlic so be careful not to burn these additions while cooking. Also, do not let the mixture sit after adding it to the recipe as this will cause oxidation which would taste bad.
Let it cool
Once your garlic has cooled, you can then process it into other products. You can either use your hands or equipment to do this! To make dried garlic powder, simply dry the chopped cloves in an oven or low heat setting.
To make fresh garlic puree, remove any skin that is stuck to the clove using a paring knife. Then, smash each clove slightly and place in a mortar or bowl with water. Use a fork to stir the mixture until it forms a paste. This will take some time depending on how many cloves you have.
Once it is a smooth consistency, drain the liquid and put it in a cheesecloth lined strainer. Twist the cheesecloth to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Repeat this step until there is no more liquid left.
Store it
If you are ever in need of black garlic, there are several good sources online where you can find recipes for it. Many people dry down fresh cloves of white or brown garlic and then roast them until they turn dark. This process is complicated so most do not prepare their own unless needed.
There are some great resources out there that offer dried roasted peel garlic cloves already made. You just have to use it within a year! That way, it has already gone through the drying process and will last longer than raw garlic powder.
We recommend shopping at well-established vendors with lots of reviews as well as before and after pictures. Some sellers even test their products by putting a little bit on your skin and seeing if it helps smooth any bumps or help prevent dryness.
Make black garlic
Making black garlic is an easy process that requires no special equipment or supplies aside from a large bowl, knife, spoon, and source of heat. It takes about half an hour to make once you have your starting materials.
Black garlic comes with several benefits. Not only does it taste great, but it also contains more healthful compounds than regular white garlic. These include antioxidants like phenylpropanoids and flavonols as well as zinc.
It can be eaten alone, mixed into recipes, or processed further in chemical reactions to produce other products. This last step is called pyrolysis and there are many ways to do this!
The most common way to perform this is via hot water. When performing black garlic extraction using this method, you will need around 2 tablespoons of black garlic per 1 cup of warm water. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes and then whisk away.
Use it in recipes
While most of us associate garlic with flavor, garlic has another important function: It helps prevent heart disease. The compound in garlic that gives it its strong taste is called allicin.
Studies show that eating just one clove of raw garlic per week can lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by up to 10%. That means you could reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by making garlic part of your diet once a week!
You can also make dried or powdered garlic, but for best results, use fresh garlic.
Mix it with oil
The next step in making black garlic is to mix it into an oil or fat of your choice. You can use any kind of oil or fat- coconut, olive, sunflower, peanut, rice bran, avocado, melted butter, you name it!
Once the black garlic has dried down, add in your preferred amount of oil or fat and blend away!
The best way to make sure all of the bits are mixed in and broken up is using either a blender or hand mixer. If you have both, then do that one piece at a time to ensure everything mixes together properly.
After this process, you will want to cook the black garlic in its own oil or fat for some time until it breaks down even more.
Add to soups
Besides using it in your recipes as an ingredient, you can also make your own black garlic by adding raw white or brown sugar (depending on whether you want it more salty or not) and slowly cooking it down until it is completely melted and charred.
Once it has cooled down, you can scrape away all of the burnt bits and add it to your favorite dishes! It will give your recipe some extra flavor and texture.
