Many recipes call for minced garlic, and instead of buying the jarred stuff (which is expensive, less flavoursome and has additives) or fiddling with a garlic press (painful things), this simple technique will have you adding fresh garlic to everything.
When one of my recipes calls for garlic to be ‘smashed and chopped’, what I mean is:
- Trim the bottom of a clove of garlic. Press with the flat side of your chef’s knife until it cracks a bit, which makes it really easy to then peel it.
- Once peeled, chop roughly and sprinkle with salt. Leave for a few minutes while doing something else. This draws the juices out a bit.
- Smash with the flat side of your knife – really get in there and press and scrape a bit until it’s quite mashed. Stop and chop further, smash again. In no time at all you’ll have a pile of soft minced garlic.
On the other hand, if you really want to use jarred minced garlic, just substitute 1 teaspoon for each clove in a recipe.
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