Garlic is perhaps the most versatile of all the essential “flavouring” ingredients. Whether it’s a slow-roasted bulb or a raw, crushed clove, the way you handle it alters it immensely. I spend a ridiculous amount of time judging the difference between allowing slivers of garlic to fry until they become sticky, or just golden brown; it’s one of the delights of spending a pretty serious amount of my life cooking. And being able to use these differences is surprisingly empowering.
At this time of year, as the new season’s garlic comes in, I often look at this most common of ingredients with fresh eyes. Winter garlic can be really strong, and that green sprout in the middle (which should be removed) can be particularly pongy. But in the spring, the sweet new bulbs have more potential – as a punchy seasoning when crushed up raw, as a seriously tasty vegetable in its own right, or as the “star” of a dish such as sopa de ajo. Now is the time to be getting into garlic.
In early spring, when the first small bulbs of ''wet’’ garlic arrive from Egypt, I often use them whole, slow-roasted like this with a delicious fresh goat’s curd (I get mine from Neal’s Yard Dairy in London). It’s a wonderful starter, and surprising too. Most people wouldn’t choose a whole bulb of garlic, but because it is delicate, spring garlic, and is slow-cooked for a good, long time, it takes on a wonderful earthy sweetness and loses most of the aggressive bite we associate with the raw stuff.
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