A family favorite, we love it over grilled salmon. It’s not only yummy but serves as a garnish as well. It looks beautiful on the fish. Also great over soup noodles, blanched vegetables and steamed pork. Oh, cook it in olive oil and it’s delicious with pasta.
Deep Fried Garlic
Makes ½ cup
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
¼ cup oil
In a small saucepan, heat oil. Test heat of oil by sticking the tip of a wooden chopstick into the oil. When small bubbles start to form at the tip, oil is ready for frying. For more on this, see Kitchen Tips: The Chopstick Thermometer Test.
Add chopped garlic and stir with a metal spoon to make sure that garlic does not stick to the pan and gets evenly cooked. Continue to stir and fry until garlic starts to get golden. Immediately pour contents to a shallow bowl to cool. Store in bottle when fully cooled. This keeps crispy for days in a glass bottle.
NOTES
–Popo taught me that there is no need to wash garlic; shallots yes, garlic no. Just cut off the root end. Chop garlic in fairly even sizes, about the size of a mung bean. A food mincer or processor is perfect for chopping large amounts.
–When frying, keep temperature at high or medium high. Keep stirring the garlic so that some pieces are not more browned than others. At first the garlic gets a bit sticky. Keep scraping the bottom of the pan so that the garlic does not stick to it.
–Timing is critical. Garlic is almost ready when it stops being sticky and starts to be separate, crispy pieces. Watch for it to turn golden brown. As soon as it does remove pan from heat right away and pour contents into a glass bowl to arrest cooking. Keeping it in the pan may cause some pieces to burn.
WHAT GETS TRICKY: Don’t leave the frying unattended. The whole process is done within minutes and timing at the end is crucial. Respond quickly—the garlic moves from the golden stage to the browning stage to burnt stage in seconds.
Variations
Different ingredients
Cook garlic with olive oil and serve with pasta. I copied frying garlic after I watched an Italian family make Aglio e Olio decades ago when I first visited Europe. I couldn’t believe how delicious noodles tossed with oil and garlic tasted.
