Garden cooking

A dose of garlic

Marika Hanbury Tenison

There must be more stories about garlic and its magical properties than about any other ingredient used in the kitchen. Look through any antique book on cooking or the medicinal properties of herbs and spices and you will find garlic being recommended as a cure for anything from sterility to the common cold. The Romans chewed garlic to give them extra strength before embarking on a battle and for centuries seamen would 'as lief go to sea without a compass as without a plentiful supply of garlic'—to run off course was one thing but to get scurvy was infinitely worse, The slaves who piled up all those stones of the Pyramids were said to have done so on a diet composed mainly of garlic and onions; the mummies buried inside them clutched a bouquet of garlic to help them attain the joys of the after-world; Mohammed sung the praises of garlic as an antidote against poisonous stings and bites and no one seems ever to have decided exactly whether the garlic bulb is stronger as repellent or encouragement to the devil.

Eating plenty of garlic will, reportedly, help any digestive problems; wearing a clove in a little bag around your neck is said to combat rheumatism and to ward off the evil eye, and I have proved myself that a piece of peeled garlic, rubbed on an open wound caused by jungle leech bites, will help to stop the bleeding more quickly than a band aid.

Recently, evidence has shown that by eating a regular supply of garlic, you can lower serum cholesterol in the body and it is also thought the properties of garlic could well be used to prevent many diseases associated with a high cholesterol level. An infusion of garlic cloves and boiling water, breathed in deeply under a towel covering, will help clear the head of catarrh or sinus, and crushed garlic chewed v. ith a spoonful of honey can apparently clear away the aftermath of a hard night's drinking in a miraculous way.

But what about the smell? If you have ever been brave enough to dive below ground to the Paris Metro you will have been greeted by that unbelievably unpleasant, lingering smell wafting in waves through the passages and in the trains themselves—it is enough to put you off eating salami for ever, unless, of course, you have been eating it yourself. Now that the Common Market has become part oT our life it is perhaps time we joined the garlic eaters once more instead of avoiding this special flavour for the sake of keeping our breath pristine and British. There is, too, a simple antidote to the haunting odours of a garlic eater: simply chew a small bunch of parsley after eating garlic and your breath will be so pure that even your closest friend will remain unaware that you have downed a dozen escargots and a quantity of atoll before you met.

Unfortunately garlic, like everything else, is increasing in price to almost ridiculous levels and those flavoured salts and spices really don't resemble the real thing at all. The answer is to grow it yourself (one clove will produce a bulb with as many as thirty-six segments). Although the bulbs will not reach the size they do in warmer countries we manage, eight hundred feet high on Bodmin Moor, to produce a healthy, well-flavoured crop which is dry enough at the end of the summer to last right through the winter. It hangs in strings from my kitchen ceiling, one of the minigods of my cooking life, helping to keep a hundred evils from my house. Because it is supposed to be good for bronchitis sufferers, stuff my small son full of it, and during the last winter he was less troubled by wheezing and coughing than ever before. Maybe that is because they removed his tonsils but, on the other hand, maybe it is indeed due to the properties of the white cloves.

Grow your garlic in full sunshine in the same way as you would onions, or plant them among your roses where many gardeners of repute maintain they will keep flowers free from disease--as garlic is a member of the lily family the combination is not as strange as it seems. When you harvest the crop try cutting the still green cloves into thin slivers and scattering them over a tomato and basil salad, raw spinach and bacon salad or a fresh green vegetable. If you feel nervous about this particular form of flavouring, treat it gently at first and beware of ever burning the cloves when cooking them. In Italy, browned garlic cloves are combined with chopped anchovY fillets and oil to make a traditional sauce for spaghetti that has a sharp and rather acrid flavour with a nutty texture. The taste of garlic, to my mind, is essential to summer and outdoor eating. Barbecued foods demand the flavouring of garlic in marinades and sauces and the garlic will also help to tenderise any tough cuts Of meat that are to be cooked over a fire. Add crushed garlic cloves to barbecue sauces and try soaking ordinary sausages in a marinade of tomato purée, crushed garlic, mixed herbs, a little cayenne pepper and some cheap red wine, then leave the sausages to soak overnight and grill them . . . the taste is something else altogether. Crudites are one of my favourite spring dishes. At this time of the year I find I yearn for the crisp texture of vegetables that are fresh and raw. They should be served with mayonnaise (made with garlic) and garlic and herb bread, made by crushing three or four cloves of garlic with a small pinch of finely chopped fresh sage and thyme and a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley into four ounces of butter. Spread the mixture on diagonal slices of a French loaf cut three-quarters of the way through.

wrap the loaf in tin foil and bake in a hot oven for about six minutes until the butter

has melted and been absorbed into al' bread. Open the top of the foil and bake for a few more minutes until crisp. For a real garlic treat, lift up the skin frorn a chicken breast using a sharp knife and, spread the meat under the skin with halt

quantities of garlic butter. Mix the remain:, ing butter mixture with three ounces 01 white breadcrurnbs and the finely chOPPed

chicken liver lightly fried in an extra half; ounce of butter; stuff the chicken with hall

a lemon and then with the bread Mixt°re

and roast as usual, basting frequently during the cooking time, and make a gravy froni

the juices in the pan by adding a tablespoon of brandy and one quarter-pint of smgle cream. Or make a soup of garlic cloves, and onion, lightly cooked in butter, cooks° in stock, pureed and mixed with a puree of potatoes before being finished with sone single cream and a scattering of flnelY chopped celery or lovage leaves. Finally, I would recommend a garlic vodka concoction which I learnt from 4

delightful and most romantic Polish count,

'It is best,' he told me, 'drunk with Sevruga, caviar and blinis but the effect is also go°:5", with scrambled eggs.' I have tried it wit". both and agree with him. Peel three f‘!" cloves of garlic and put them into a washeo out tonic bottle. Fill the bottle with vo.c1100 (preferably Polish vodka) and place it in deep freeze or the ice-making compartment of a refrigerator and leave it there for a.,1 least a week. Strain the vodka into small' chilled glasses and throw it back in one PIP.