Every August we celebrate the new harvest of pink garlic from Lautrec. It is sweet and spicy at the same time, its aroma enriches a dish without overpowering the other ingredients, and stored at 12 to 15 °C in a dry, airy place, it lasts until the next harvest. For our garlic festival, our employee Jens cooked three dishes with it, which we are sharing here. Don't be afraid of too much garlic: for these three recipes, "less is more" does not apply, as an exception. Where the garlic comes from, why it does not get moldy, and how Sébastien Marty makes black garlic out of it is explained in our portrait of the Lautrecoise.
Lautrec · Garlic Festival
Aïl, aïl, aïl: three recipes
Three dishes that build on each other: a potato-based aïoli, a garlic confit that steeps in lukewarm oil for four hours, and a bread salad that is fried with the oil from the confit. All three for an aperitif, as a side dish, or with pan-seared meat.
1 · Aïoli, the garlic mayonnaise
Ingredients
Preparation
1
Peel the potatoes and cook them slowly until tender, so the starch is preserved. Let them cool.
2
Peel the garlic and blend it raw together with the potatoes using a hand blender.
3
Add a good dash of vinegar or lemon juice and a pinch of salt, then slowly pour in the grape seed oil and blend like a mayonnaise.
Tip
Aïoli goes with everything, classically with steamed vegetables: potatoes, carrots, leeks, green beans. The potato in the mixture makes it more stable than a pure egg mayonnaise.
2 · Confit garlic
Ingredients
Preparation
1
Cut the bulbs into cloves, peel them and fry them briefly but properly until golden in a pan.
2
Pour in a mixture of grape seed and olive oil until the garlic is completely covered.
3
Let it steep for 4 hours over the lowest heat. The oil must not get hotter than 35 °C; if you don't have a thermometer, dip your finger in: it must be pleasantly lukewarm. Too hot: take the pan off the stove. Too cold: put it back on.
4
For immediate serving, strain and collect the oil, as it is the base for the bread salad. For storage, put the garlic with the oil in a Weck jar; it must remain completely covered.
5
Sweet version: After frying, add honey to taste and let it caramelize briefly, then continue as described.
Tip
The confit garlic is intended for seasoning, although you can also eat it on its own. In vinaigrettes and sauces, it makes them savory but not spicy, rather slightly sweet.
3 · Bread salad with garlic oil
Ingredients
Preparation
1
Chop the spring onions and tomatoes, and lightly brown them with the capers in a pan, then set aside.
2
Cut the bread into bite-sized pieces. Heat the garlic oil in the pan and fry the bread pieces in it until golden and crispy like croutons. Salt immediately, as the bread will not absorb the salt later.
3
When the bread is golden brown, add the spring onion-tomato-caper mixture. Season with vinegar, oil and Piment d'Espelette, and add herbs to taste.
Tip
Let the bread cool before mixing it with the rest if you want it to stay crispy. The bread salad goes well with pan-seared meat and anything from the grill. Use whatever you have for the tomatoes and capers; sun-dried tomatoes also work, but they are saltier.
Download all three recipes as a print-friendly PDF version
