To Garlic, With Love

We have a couple of simple rules around here:  (1) there is no substitute for Tabasco (2) always double the red pepper flake (3) don’t skimp on the garlic!  We dedicate this post to our love affair with garlic.  We present:  GARLIC SOUP.  There’s no better way to sate our insatiable appetite for this most fragrant and stinky gem of the onion family than by making it the star of the show!  Move over condiments….it’s time for garlic.

The recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated and features 4 (four!) heads of garlic.  The first step is to smash them to smithereens.  Ok….not quite that much.  To make it less messy, the recipe suggests putting them in a Ziploc bag and then beating them mercilessly with your weapon of choice (we chose a meat tenderizer).  Let me tell you……..it smelled amazing when we finally opened the bag. 

You don’t have to spend too much time removing the skins….we took out the big bits, but the recipe said it was ok to leave some of the skins in there because it was all going to get strained out later.

So, we poached the smashed garlic in some olive oil and chicken stock.  This simmered for about 35 minutes to get all of that delicious garlic flavor out of there.  I then mashed it a little bit more to squeeze out just a little bit more of that good flavor!

Meanwhile, we also boiled 6 cups of chicken stock with some water, parsley, thyme, and the rind of parmesan.  Apparently using the parmesan rind for flavoring soups is fairly common.  I however, found it a rather uncommon ingredient at HEB (for the record, Central Market carries it).  I ended up having to buy a bunch of parmesan that I didn’t want, but I’m sure we’ll use it at some point…  Onward! 

The stock simmered for about 30 minutes in order to get good and concentrated.

Meanwhile, we made garlic croutons.  We just sliced some bread, toasted it in the oven for about 10 minutes, rubbed a garlic clove on it, and then cut it into pieces.  Easy!

 

When the garlic was good and ready, we combined it with the chicken stock and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.  Then we strained it, smashing up the garlic as much as we could to extract every last bit of flavor.

Now comes the somewhat weird part.  We beat 2 eggs and added some grated parmesan and red pepper flake.  Then we whisked this into the hot soup.  This purportedly added richness and flavor.

 

Truth be told, this was a rich, savory, flavorful bowl of garlicy soup. 

 

Dear Garlic:
We love you.
Love,
Chez Venza