Caramelized Garlic

Every trendy restaurant, at one time or another, has set out roasted garlic along with slices of crusty bread on which to smear it. Using the oversized elephant garlic gives a milder flavor, but the regular variety is just as tasty if a little more pungent. If you are only cooking one bulb, it's best to use a small (1-quart) slow cooker.

Yield: 5 to 6 large cloves or 12 to 18 small cloves
Cooking Time: 5 to 8 hours on HIGH
Slow Cooker Size: 1 quart

1 bulb elephant or 2 bulbs regular garlic, intact
Olive or vegetable oil
Good quality, crusty bread, thickly sliced

To prepare the garlic, use a serrated knife to cut off one-fourth of the top of the bulb, exposing just the tops of the cloves. Place the garlic, cut side up, in the insert of the slow cooker. Pour in oil to come about one third of the way up the sides of the garlic bulb. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours, or until the garlic is very soft when pierced with the point of a sharp knife. Cool the garlic bulb in the oil.

To serve, place the whole bulb in the center of a rimmed plate. Pour some of the garlic oil around it. Pass the bread. Squeeze the softened cloves of garlic onto the bread.

Note:
The fragrant garlic oil can be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container for 1 month. Use it in salad dressings, to baste broiled fish, and drizzle it over soup, pasta, or grilled vegetables.

Buy the Book!

Slow Cooker Cooking
By Lora Brody
Morrow Cookbooks/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
William Morrow; February 2001
Hardcover $25.00, 224 pages
ISBN: 0-688-17471-X
Recipe reprinted by permission.