Monday, June 8, 2009

Second try


I was able to get a good bunch of what is known as garlic chives, which are a member of the garlic family, specifically alliums (onion, shallots, leeks, ramps, etc. are all in the allium family). But they are not garlic as we generally know it. It is similar to regular chives but it has a flat blade and a bulb that almost looks like a baby leek (see photo below). It has a strong garlic flavor without the bite of raw garlic.

I believe this is what the recipe calls for when it asks for wild garlic leaves. As a recap, I am referring to the recipe on page 11 of "The Whole Beast", for "Chicken Broth and Wild Garlic". It asks for a bundle of wild garlic leaves. These were certainly wild since I harvested them with my own hands and they are definitely leaves. So I am just going with it as the right ingredient.
The actual "broth" is really a clarified stock, known as consomme to you and me.

This attempt spurred a rather fortunate twist. I thought of putting the piping hot soup in a hermetic jar with the garlic chives coarsely chopped to let the ingredients "get to know each other" faster and better than just sitting in a soup bowl. It seemed to make a big difference in the impact of the flavor of the garlic on the stock. In the first try (see posting below) you only tasted the garlic if it was in your mouth an boy was is present. In this case, the whole consomme was infused with a generous punch of garlic, without drowning the flavor and aroma of the actual consomme. I was quite content with the results. It was much better than the first try by far. I wonder if this could be better if I made the first soup with the garlic scapes in this way, with the hermetic jar, letting the flavors become better acquainted? Or maybe it would be too strong. Just garlic and no consomme.
In any case I think this was a good end result and I am moving on to the next recipe.

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