How to prepare garlic

✅ The essentials

A head of garlic separates into cloves. A clove crushed with the flat of the knife peels itself and gets chopped in a few seconds. The taste changes with the cut: crushed and cooked gently, it is mild; finely chopped and raw, it is strong.

🛒 Choosing it

A firm, heavy head, with tight cloves, no green shoot sticking out and no soft spots.

🧼 Preparing it

Break off a clove, put it on the board, lay the flat of the blade on it and press sharply with your palm. The skin splits and comes off. Cut the clove in half and remove the green germ if it is big, it is bitter.

🔪 Cutting it for the dish

• Crushed whole, to flavour an oil or a stew, then you take it out or let it melt.
• Chopped, for a sauce, a stir-fry or a marinade. It goes into the pan after the onion, never on high heat, or it burns and turns bitter.
• In its skin, in the oven with a chicken or vegetables: it turns soft and sweet.

⏱️ How long it takes

Thirty seconds per clove.

🧊 Storing it

The whole head somewhere dry, out of the fridge, several weeks. Peeled, in the fridge in a container, two or three days. Do not keep garlic in oil at room temperature.

🍽️ Make it tonight

The build-your-own marinated chicken: the chopped garlic of the paprika and garlic marinade.