Basics - Recipe: Fermented Garlic Butter Stack - Black Garlic

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I came across fermented garlic, also know as black garlic in the kitchen at the Chancery  when helping out Sabrina Ghayour doing the charity event: The French Laundrette Supper Club the proceeds of which went to Action Against Hunger. Post about that coming soon!

It's garlic, but not as we know it!! For a start it's black, secondly, its texture is completely different to garlic: having been fermented at high temperature for around a month, it's actually quite soft and pliable. It has a history of use in Asian cuisine, and is much, much milder than raw garlic. It has a subtle sweet flavour . . . .

Time to put it to the test at ferdiesfoodlab!

This is a component / basic recipe and recipes that use it  are . . . . coming soon.  King Prawn and Black Garlic Kebab, Gargantuan Madagascan Prawn with Lemon and Black Garlic Stripes and Paprika Churros. If you like to see one posted first leave a comment tell me which! : )

ingredients (a 280g block)
for the butter stack
250g butter (unsalted)
30 cloves (3 bulbs) black garlic (peeled)

apparatus
chef's knife
plastic cutting board

method
Put the butter in the deep freeze for 15 mins or at the back of your fridge (where it's coldest) so that it's around -2C / 35F.
While the butter cools, take the cloves and spread them as thinly as possible on a plastic cutting board. (not wooden as shown here) Put a few drops of water on the board and wet your knife. Squeeze a clove so that it's just under a millimetre thick then loosen it from the board and use a spreading action,  to make it thinner still. Repeat for each clove, maintaining a wet board and knife throughout.

Once the garlic is ready, remove the butter from the cool (the fridge or freezer) and cut a 2-3mm slice off across its width, cover in a film of black garlic, and repeat until a stack is created. Squeeze the stack down to remove any air from it.

Start the stack

and continue stacking until the butter's used up

 

Store at the back (coldest part) of the fridge until required. Cut lengthways to reveal stripes across the slice of butter.

 

thinking ahead
The butter stack will live happily in the freezer or fridge for a month or more.

 

what could go wrong?
Using a dry blade or board will mean that the garlic will stick to one or the other, or both, and be difficult to spread thinly, giving you curly wedges more suitable for a noodle recipe!! : / Make sure both the blade and board are wet!

to serve
Cut a thin slice off and melt onto toast!

more on black garlic

on twitter @blackgarlicUK, on facebook, on their homepage

recipies using black garlic coming up

Gargantuan Madagascan Prawn with Lemon and Black Garlic Stripes and Paprika Churros

King Prawn and Black Garlic Kebab (I couldn't resist a quick dip of yoghurt - thus the missing naan, oops!)