Rocco DiSpirito
Rocco Q&A
Get more Rocco Q&A
Send Rocco your questions!—Ellen
Ahhh, you're looking for the old garlic without the smell trick? Why do we have such a love-hate relationship with garlic? But I'm not judging.
The reason they are still crunchy is 'cause they were pickled. Anything preserved in vinegar stays crunchy. A quick pickle is easy:
Put the whole, peeled cloves in a saucepan and just cover them with cold water, bring to a boil, drain and cover with vinegar and you're done. In a few days to a week (depending on the size of the cloves) you'll have fully pickled or "vinegared" garlic. Now if you want more complexity or less acidity you can add sugar, spices, herbs, peppers or just about anything you think goes well with garlic.
As an alternative: after blanching, try slowly poaching the garlic cloves in olive oil until very, very soft but still whole and use the soft garlic to flavor just about anything that isn't sweet like sauces, marinades, vinaigrettes and even mashed potatoes. It's truly garlic heaven!
—Toni
There is a lot of debate about the use of non-stick cookware. Some say it's unhealthy, others say it's unhealthy only at high temperatures. I like to sauté over very high heat so I avoid non-stick unless it's absolutely necessary. The best way to avoid sticking is to heat your pan over very high heat and then add the fat (oil or butter) and heat that until very hot as well. Then make sure whatever your sautéing is very dry. You can actually dab a chicken breast or pork chop dry with a paper towel-it's what the pros do. Actually we never use non-stick unless we are cooking eggs because that's really where its truly necessary. Eggs don't require high heat and they are very sticky. So for anything other than egg cookery I prefer heavy stainless steel or cast iron/porcelain covered cast iron (never use uncoated aluminum) because food tastes better when it sticks just enough to create the little brown bits of protein at the bottom of the pan during cooking. Then when you deglaze (fancy French term for adding a liquid to a hot pan after sautéing) the pan you get a lovely little flavor base for a sauce.
