Black Garlic Review & Recipe

One of the blogs I monitor on a regular basis is Marxfoods.com. Purveyors of fine bulk foods for home chefs and restaurants, their blog offers quality information on their products along with tips and recipes for use. Right before the holidays Marxfoods.com was featuring black garlic and offered to send me some to review. I had never had black garlic; nor did I have any idea how to use it in recipes but I was up for the challenge.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with black garlic it’s basically regular garlic that has gone through an intense fermentation process which mellows the flavor and changes the color. Hence the black sticky sweet cloves.

Black garlic is said to be loaded with antioxidants; nearly 2x more than regular garlic. It also lacks the bite and after taste of regular garlic. By that I mean no garlic breath even when you eat a raw clove. And yes, you can eat them raw. The taste is similar to balsamic vinegar; slightly sweet and savory all at once.

The first recipe I tried was for a black garlic tapenade; smeared on some crusty Italian bread this was a big hit at a dinner party I hosted.

After that I just started experimenting. I used it as a substitute in recipes that called for regular garlic and even added it to recipes that didn’t have any garlic. It went really well in a balsamic vinaigrette I made and added a delightful sweetness to a warm lentil salad. I also sautéed it with mushrooms and used it as a topping for grilled chicken. I even mixed it into my scrambled eggs. Yes, that's right I put it in my eggs and I loved it.

I know it’s somewhat hard to find, although I’ve seen it recently at Whole Foods, but I would definitely recommend trying it if you ever have the chance. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.