Garlic Confit
Whole garlic cloves slow-cooked in olive oil with thyme until golden and meltingly soft. Sweet, mellow, nothing like raw garlic. Spread on toast, fold into pasta, smear on roast meat. Adapted from Daen's Kitchen.
Ingredients
- 6 heads garlic
- 3 cups extra virgin olive oil
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
Method
- 00
An oven is not required. A microwave or stovetop pan works just as well — cooking times vary by method, so judge by sight and feel rather than the clock. Cook until the cloves are golden and yielding; test doneness by piercing a clove with a fork, which should slide in with no resistance.
- 01
Heat oven to 120 °C (250 °F).
- 02
Peel the garlic: break the heads into individual cloves, drop them into boiling water for 5 minutes, drain, then slip the skins off — they should come away easily. Trim the hard root end off each clove with a sharp knife.
- 03
Place the peeled cloves and thyme sprigs in a small ovenproof dish. Pour over enough olive oil (sunflower oil works too — small difference) to fully submerge them.
- 04
Bake 1–2 hours, until the cloves are golden and soft enough to crush with the back of a spoon.
- 05
Cool completely, then transfer cloves and oil to a clean, airtight glass jar. Store in the refrigerator.
Notes from the kitchen
- ·Use fresh, firm heads of garlic — pre-peeled cloves go bitter and lose the silky finish.
- ·The infused oil is half the prize. Drizzle it on bread, eggs, roast vegetables, or use it to start a sauce.
- ·Variations: add a knob of butter, a pinch of chili flakes, a bay leaf, rosemary, or oregano. Keep the herbs whole so they're easy to fish out.
- ·Freeze in ice-cube trays for portioned use later — cloves and oil together, one cube per pasta.
- ·Refrigerate only. Garlic in oil at room temperature is a botulism risk. Use within 2–3 weeks; discard at any sign of fizz, cloudiness, or off smell.