Friday, 17 August 2018

Veggie box – the garlic


There are two gigantic bulbs of garlic in the box. I always roast my garlic and then “pop” each clove - freeze in small pots, inexpensive – check out the baby aisle. These gigantic bulbs are however a different kettle of fish. Have you ever heard of “elephant garlic” - huge bulbs that measure 10cms (4”) in diameter. The bulbs I had weren't quite so large but not far off. Elephant garlic is said to be not “real” garlic but a stem leek. Larger and milder than the norm – especially suitable for roasting.

My research tells me that it can grow to 150mm across and weigh over a kilo – yikes, 2.2lbs in old money.

Needless to say I am going to need considerably larger pots than I normally use!

Have a look at these pics :


I roasted the two bulbs, drizzled with a drop of rapeseed oil in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for an hour. I left to cool, gloved up and then peeled back the skin and popped the cloves. There were 10 massive specimens, some of which were larger than others so I had to take radical action and cut some in half so that they'd fit into the containers!

You can grow your own elephant garlic – check out your favourite search engine.

It's really satisfying having reaped the benefit of my friend's hard work and generosity to know that I've not wasted the beautiful fresh produce.

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