Black garlic – a savory, elusive treat

After seeing the mysterious black garlic featured on both Chopped and Top Chef I needed to have it, but finding the item was difficult to say the least. Luckily the Oil and Vinegar store in Bellevue Square had a full head of cloves in stock for around $8, leading to a fun night of culinary experimentation.

It’s savory, with a deep umami flavor that’s reminiscent of a cross between roasted garlic and vegemite (or super concentrated bouillon). Would it live up to the hype?

Both the store employee and the folks at Black Garlic itself suggest using the product sparingly, as it’s a very intense flavor and ‘a little goes a long way’. I decided to put this to the test be preparing it in two ways: mushroom risotto, and a very basic bean spread for crostini.

The risotto was as simple as possible, and vegan so Kevin could try – slowly sauteed onion and garlic (with thin slices of a few cloves of the black garlic), carnaroli rice, pinot grigio for deglazing, Better than Bouillon no-chicken broth for the stock and a mix in of chives and “butter” (Earth Balance buttery sticks, the only vegan butter that imo tastes pretty damned similar to the real thing).  A few additional slivers of the black garlic on top for good measure.

Only olive oil and the black garlic were blended with white cannellini beans, laid atop a few crisp crostini rounds. Unlike the risotto, I assumed that the bean dip would be far more flavorful due to the much higher ratio of black garlic to other ingredients, and ‘a little goes a long way’, right? 

Well, not exactly. The garlic’s robust flavor was completely lost in the bean dip (1 small can of beans with about 4-5 cloves of the black garlic – a LOT of cloves as suggestions seem to indicate 1-2 cloves is ‘a lot’), the risotto faring slightly better only because of the ample extra slices on top. Still sumptuous for sure, but a bit of a let down from what I expected.

I look forward to experimenting with more black garlic in the future. Next time, I plan on letting the black garlic shine, probably spreading it solo on a crostini with some wild arugula and perhaps a small amount of ricotta. If you’re interested in procuring black garlic, amazon is an option for the truly desperate (as the cloves are insanely overpriced), but you may also have luck at your local Whole Foods or other specialty stores.