Something very useful indeed

(the quickest garlic confit imaginable)

I have a friend Eddie who is an excellent cook and one time chef. He is Malaysian and does things like invite a crowd of us round for a multi course lunch for Chinese New Year (at least 20 dishes, possibly more, I lost count, and doggy bags) and also randomly makes the best textured ice cream I’ve ever experienced, from a domestic kitchen at least. And a few weeks ago he made a huge batch of garlic puree and gave me a jar.

A quick aside - Eddie is one of several people I have met on my early morning walks who over the years has become a friend. We’re very lucky how green it is here, for a London postcode - you’ve all seen the photos, but there are a series of meadows, fields and wild areas flanking the canal and the River Brent where I live and you can walk almost from the A40 in the north to Brentford in the south, almost right to the Thames - several miles - without crossing a road.

It is mostly dog walkers out at that time (pre dawn onwards, so 5ish at the moment) and people without dogs are initially viewed with bemusement if not downright suspicion. I certainly was when I first started this routine, several years ago now. I still find it strange the number of people who think walking without a dog is odd, as I honestly think walking is one of the best things we can do and I don’t need a dog to make me do it. It is my time to myself. We all need time every day to ourselves, and my terraced house is busy with noise from within and both sides so quite full on so I do really appreciate the time away - there may be noise from the M4 if the wind is in the wrong direction or heavy air traffic, but there is also frequently just bird song and peace.

Having said all that, I do also really enjoy walking with the friends I have met there over the years, Eddie being a case in point. It happens slowly. A nod turns into a hello then one day a standing chat until you are at the point when one of you might turn round to walk with the other so you can continue talking. But always checking first - walking etiquette. It is thoughtful and companionable. I rarely arrange to meet early in the morning though. I tried regularly meeting one friend at 6.30am over winter, but found that I was waking up all through the night because I was scared I was going to sleep through and keep her waiting (I never sleep through). So now it is a case of “if I see you, I see you.” I don’t mind either way and neither does anyone else, we all appreciate both. But I especially find walking on my own helps lift my mood when I’m in a funk, gives me space to think out problems - and helps with work too. Whenever I am blocked a walk can shift it and I often find myself dictating into Notes.

That was a longer aside than I intended. I get as evangelical about walking as I do pressure cooking.

Back to the garlic!

I felt quite spoilt having the puree on hand the past few weeks as I have barely needed to smash a clove. It has gone into everything to which I usually add garlic. And I wanted to make something similar but then my mind went towards the mellower garlic confit and how easy it should be to pressure cook it. I took an educated guess as to how long it would take and was luckily happy with the results first time round - believe me, this does not always happen. There was not much for me to go on online. Virtually everything I found referred to this Modernist Cuisine recipe which cooks it at pressure for 2 hours. 2 hours! There are a few issues with the recipe as it is written and the egullet thread I read on it threw up all sorts of problems. But again, 2 hours?! That’s pretty much how long it takes conventionally - or even longer, so why? Apparently the point is it makes it storage safe for up to 2 months - any botulism spores will be killed at 15 PSI/120C temperature after that length of time. I’m still unsure how they came up with 2 hours or even 2 months as this isn’t explained and seems a bit arbitrary.

You will be glad to know that my method is not 2 hours, it is 7 minutes at high pressure plus the amount of time it takes to come up to pressure and the time (off the heat obviously) that it takes to drop pressure too. If you are worried about botulism, always a concern with low acid preserves, don’t keep it in the fridge for longer than a week - I find that virtually everything is fine to this point. If you don’t think you’ll use it up in that time, then put some of it in the freezer. You will find that you can leave the cloves whole and they will spoon out ok. Or you can strain, puree and put into ice cube trays before turning out into a freezer container.

I have kept this recipe very pure - literally 2 ingredients - because I want versatility. But you can add any aromatics you like. Lightly bruised rosemary/thyme/bay are good additions, so is chilli. You can also make with duck or goose fat if you prefer.

This amount filled one 400ml jar - so almost 1lb - with 1cm headspace at the top but you make as much or as little as you like.

Pressure Cooker Garlic Confit

200g garlic cloves, peeled (around 5-6 heads of garlic)

Enough olive oil to cover (I used 150ml)

Method:

Put the garlic cloves and olive oil into a pressure cooker proof bowl - I used Pyrex, but you can use anything ceramic, or heat proof plastic (not ideal, but there are a lot of pudding basins around which are) or enamel as long as it isn’t chipped and exposing any metal. Cover with foil or baking parchment and secure in place with string or rubber bands (I always use 2 rubber bands just in case one of them snaps).

Alternatively, if you are storing all of the confit in the fridge, cloves left whole and intact, there is no need to use a bowl, you can make it directly into a jar - just pile everything into a sterilised preserving jar and put the lid on loosely.

Put 1 cm water in the base of your pressure cooker. Add a trivet and the bowl or jar. This is not one of those times you can substitute a piece of cloth for a trivet - the bowl needs to be above the water so it cooks really evenly. Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Adjust the heat so it is just high enough to maintain the pressure and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally.

Check the garlic - it should be knife tender, squishable and may have started taking in a very little colour just to show it has started to caramelise (can’t imagine what it would be like after 2 hours).

Remove the bowl or jar from the cooker. Leave to cool down completely. You now have options:

If keeping the garlic cloves intact, keep in a sterilised jar in the fridge or in a freezer container.

If you want a very olive oil rich puree, blitz the contents of the bowl together and transfer to a sterilised jar or spoon into ice cube trays and store in the fridge or freezer.

For a separate garlic puree and garlic infused olive oil, strain off most of the olive oil before you puree it. If storing in a jar, just pour the strained off olive oil back on top of the puree - it will sit there happily and help preserve it and can be spooned off as needed. If freezing, spoon the puree into ice cube trays and keep the olive oil in a jar in the fridge.

How to use?

I add to anything I would add raw garlic to. The flavour of this confit is sweet and mellow but still packs a good garlicky punch and I think bridges the gap between raw and cooked really well. Or whisk into salad dressings, or use for spreading - I just spread some bread with butter, followed by a couple of cloves of garlic, some sliced cherry tomatoes, finished with a little dried thyme, some tarragon salt and a drizzle of the garlicky oil. Very simple.

Thank you for reading! There is more to come with regard preserving, as I have just spent a day making things inspired by Kenji Morimoto’s Ferment. An odd one to cover in a pressure cooking newsletter you might think, but actually, the pressure cooker does come in handy and his book covers dishes which use the fermented foods too….

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