This past weekend might have marked the unofficial end of summer, but Summer Fest is still in full swing over here. This week we’re celebrating garlic and it’s perfect timing for me because my friend Ruby recently sent me home with a big bag of garlic from her mom’s garden.
I wasn’t sure what to do with all the garlic and I toyed with the idea of roasting a huge batch and perhaps freezing it in small portions to use throughout the fall and winter. But then I remembered the pickled garlic that my grandmother used to buy and serve alongside other appetizers during the holidays. It was really good and I wondered if I could make something similar myself.
I found a couple recipes for pickled garlic in my books about pickling and preserving, and it seemed simple enough. The recipes called for either straight vinegar or a mixture of vinegar and wine. I didn’t have any wine in the house, so I decided on a white wine vinegar to use as my liquid. I didn’t use any pickling spices, opting instead for some dried red chiles – I wanted spicy pickled garlic!
While searching for information about preserving garlic, I found a link to a UC Davis food safety publication called Garlic: Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy. It’s a great resource and it reassured me that I could safely store garlic cloves in wine or vinegar in the refrigerator for a few months.
I ended up peeling about five heads of garlic to fill my three half-pint jars with cloves. It took a while!
My books said to blanch the cloves in boiling water for 30 seconds to help loosen the skins for peeling. I did that, but I’m not sure that it was any faster than if I had just peeled them dry.
I sterilized the jars in the dishwasher then filled them with cloves and put one dried red chile in each jar. I boiled the vinegar with salt and sugar then poured the hot liquid over the garlic and puts the lids on.
That was it! I waited for them to cool and then put them in the refrigerator to hang out for the next month or so. I’ll let you know in a month how they taste! Here’s the recipe I used in case you want to give it a try yourself in the meantime.
Spicy Pickled Garlic
Approximately 1 1/2 cups peeled garlic cloves (4 – 5 heads of garlic)
3 dried chilies
2 cups white wine vinegar
2 scant teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
special equipment: 3 sterilized half-pint jars with lids
Fill jars with garlic cloves and add one dried chili to each jar. In a small saucepan, combine vinegars, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Fill jars with hot liquid and screw lids onto the jars. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate. Garlic should be ready to eat in about 3-4 weeks and will keep in the refrigerator for about 4 months.
Other Summer Fest Attendees Celebrating Garlic:
- Todd and Diane at White on Rice Couple: Garlic Knots
- Sara at Food2: Easiest Recipes Ever, Starring Garlic
- Michelle at Cooking Channel: Roasted Garlic
- Liz at Healthy Eats: 5 Reasons to Eat More Garlic
- Kirsten at FN Dish: Garlic Chicken Greats
- Margaret at A Way to Garden: Growing and Storing a Year of Garlic
- Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Ajo Blanco Soup, and Confit Garlic
- The Gilded Fork: Garlic Dossier and Recipes
- Food Network UK: Glorious Garlic
- Alana at Eating from the Group Up: Pickled Garlic
- Cate at Sweetnicks: Double Dose of Garlic—Cuban Black Beans and The Best Pork Ever
- Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Italian Marinated Eggplant and Sorrel and Garlic Sauce
- Paige at The Sister Project: Spaghetti with Garlic and Zucchini
How You Can Join in Summer/Fall Fest 2010
Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? You can contribute to our online recipe swap in various ways, big or small.
Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer/Fall Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.
The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. Yes, copy and paste them everywhere! That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.
Or think bigger: Publish entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2010 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Matt Bites), or the new pumpkin version he just did if it’s for September 22 onward.
Summer/Fall Fest 2010 Posting Schedule
7/28: Cukes and Zukes
8/4: Corn
8/11: Herbs, Greens, and Beans
8/18: Stone Fruit – I missed this one!
8/25: Tomatoes
9/1: Sweet and Spicy Peppers
9/8: Garlic
9/15: White (or colorful “white”…but not sweet) Potatoes
9/22: Spinach
9/29: Apples
10/6: Fall Salads
10/13: Pumpkin + Winter Squash
10/20: Pears
10/27: “Mad Stash” (as in what you’re shoving in freezer/jars/dehydrator, etc.)
11/3: Root veggies
11/10: Brassicas: incl. Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Cabbage or other
11/17: Sweet Potatoes
11/24: Bounty to Be Grateful For
I have a whole mess of garlic in the pantry waiting for me to do just this. My husband and two older boys *love* spicy pickled garlic.
3:56 am Sep 8th, 2010Hmm….something to try!?! Looks delicious! Love the photos.
5:23 am Sep 8th, 2010[...] Pingback: Summer Fest: Spicy Pickled Garlic — Pinch My Salt [...]
6:56 am Sep 8th, 2010[...] Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Spicy Pickled Garlic [...]
7:01 am Sep 8th, 2010That’s exactly how we pickle garlic in Indian kitchen. Just add a little coriander and a little fennel powder and you’ve got an Indian pickle.
7:23 am Sep 8th, 2010Here’s what I did with garlic this week http://bit.ly/ck7C1r
I’ve never tried pickled garlic, but it sounds interesting. What do you eat it with?
7:42 am Sep 8th, 2010This week I made garlic soup with poached eggs:
http://4seasonsoffood.blogspot.com/2010/09/garlic-soup-with-poached-eggs.html
So glad summer fest is still on!
Gorgeous as always! Would you pretty please post it to Punk Domestics? You’re a love!
8:37 am Sep 8th, 2010I love pickled garlic and this looks like a great approach. No need to process the jars?
9:14 am Sep 8th, 2010Another great condiment to add to my refrigerator!! Great info. on garlic preservation as well!!
Caron, if you wanted to store the jars at room temp. then processing the jars would be in order but heating the garlic to that temp destroys some of the flavor which is why it generally isn’t done non commercially. Storing in vinegar in the refrigerator is not such a problem because vinegar is acidic and isn’t a low oxygen environment. Problem with storing in oil is that it is a low oxygen/ low acid environment which bacteria love.
So glad garlic was featured this week – my contribution is a Caramelized Garlic Pilaf
Can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with!
10:17 am Sep 8th, 2010[...] Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Spicy Pickled Garlic [...]
10:20 am Sep 8th, 2010I’ve never tried pickled garlic, but it sounds good. I’m curious to see what you’ll pair it with!
This week I wrote about the health benefits of garlic: http://www.thefoodpsychologist.net/thefoodpsych/?p=434
10:28 am Sep 8th, 2010Mmmm–I grew up in Spain, and we used to eat pickled garlic as an appetizer. Let us know how they turn out! I’d love to make this.
10:35 am Sep 8th, 2010I have never pickled garlic, but love it. Thanks for adding the resource from UC Davis
11:45 am Sep 8th, 2010i love pickled garlic…and yours looks delicious. thank you for the tip. i posted a couple of recipes using garlic, tomatoes and grilled bread and included pa amb tomaquet http://napafarmhouse1885.blogspot.com/2010/09/it-is-garlic-week-at-summer-festso-what.html
12:06 pm Sep 8th, 2010I love pickled garlic! Looks easy and I love the cute little jars. You can also plant your garlic in the fall and then pick it come July. I plan on doing that with some organic garlic from the farmer’s market (I think the stuff from the store gets treated so it won’t germinate).
12:18 pm Sep 8th, 2010Una bellissima idea!!!!!
12:38 pm Sep 8th, 2010A presto!!!!
I will definitely try this. Would love to see that in my kitchen. My contribution for Summer Fest this week is Garlic Chicken.
3:13 pm Sep 8th, 2010http://dejavucook.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/garlic/chicken/thighs/and/drumsticks
Your garlic photos are so beautiful and golden. You are inspiring me to get pickling!
My contribution to Fall Fest this week is a gentle nudge to plant your own garlic. It’s so very easy!
http://www.dollopofcream.com/2010/09/plant-yourself-some-garlic.html
5:39 pm Sep 8th, 2010And I JUST bought a jar of pickled garlic from the farmers market for my parents. They look awesome and I hope they turn out good!
9:52 pm Sep 8th, 2010Saw this on FB and was totally intrigued. Man I less than love peeling garlic, but will do it every time to end up with something heavenly. This looks like it would be.
11:58 am Sep 9th, 2010I love garlic in any form, but I have never tried pickled garlic. With your straight-forward recipe I am sure I’ll try it – the simplicity and the combination of the flavors work for me!
BTW, I bought a bunch of serranos to pickle them. I’ll let you know how they turn out:)
I went into a grilling fizzy, and made Grilled Peppers, Grilled Eggplant, and Roasted Beets with garlic and Vinaigrette.
5:10 pm Sep 9th, 2010http://bibberche.com/2010/09/grilled-peppers-grilled-eggplant-roasted-beets-with-garlic/
I love pickling garlic but I don’t eat it myself. I make it for the rest of the family. Pickling does some great things to the garlic – they kind of end up crunchy in a squeaky sort of way. Pickling also takes some of the ‘stink’ out of fresh garlic so that even people who don’t like garlic can eat it happily. I’m bad sometimes and add a whole bunch of fresh chilies too and some salt to bring out the flavour.
1:00 am Sep 10th, 2010Probably not a good idea for those on low-sodium diets.
I’ve never had pickled garlic and I think it’s time to change that! I also happen to have chiles on hand..
I made sofrito to celebrate Fall Fest’s garlic week: http://www.artandlemons.com/2010/09/sofrito.html
nikki
6:25 am Sep 10th, 2010[...] Pinch My Salt – Pickled Garlic - YUM!!! [...]
9:32 am Sep 10th, 2010I’ve never had pickled garlic before, unless I ate it on accident. I can always expect you to give us something creative-good job. I did a review on some new Wine Flour Pasta along with garlic for Summer Fest.
~Caberneti Spaghetti Nests with Crispy Egg and Golden Garlic
1:07 pm Sep 10th, 2010http://2besatisfied.blogspot.com/2010/09/summer-fest-caberneti-spaghetti-nests.html
~Chef Louise
I’ve never had whole garlic pickled… The minced garlic I had was in vinegar though and it gives it a slightly different taste!
8:05 am Sep 11th, 2010I’d have been tempted to roast it along side a chicken and eat garlic with hot roast chicken.
Friend was discussing with me recently about jars and how they found it hard to get the new lids these days…
I just recycle old jam jars – we seem to use an inordinate amount of jam here!
[...] Sweet and Spicy Peppers 9/8: Garlic 9/15: White (or colorful “white”…but not sweet) Potatoes 9/22: Spinach 9/29: [...]
2:53 am Sep 15th, 2010Just noticed Summer/Fall Fest 2010… how fun! I guess I missed Summer Fest but I’m excited to participate in Fall Fest! Going to look for something to make with apples right now…
8:20 am Sep 22nd, 2010[...] Sweet and Spicy Peppers9/8: Garlic9/15: White (or colorful “white”… but not sweet) Potatoes9/22: Spinach9/29: [...]
1:01 am Sep 27th, 2010Thank you for including the link to the UC Davis garlic info! I made garlic steeped in olive oil a few years ago and it was delicious, but apparently I was at risk of botulism poisoning! Good to know for the future. Might have to try it in vinegar instead.
5:27 pm Sep 28th, 2010[...] eres amante del ajo en las comidas esta receta de ajo picante en escabeche te resultará súper útil. Podrás guardarla durante un par de meses en tu nevera y agregarla a [...]
12:00 am May 11th, 2011Hello–just curious, how did the pickled garlic turn out? I searched your site but didn’t see a follow up. Are there any changes to the original recipe that you’d recommend? Thanks!
6:42 am Jul 7th, 2011[...] Spicy: pickle garlic, tucking a dried chili in each jar for heat and beauty. Makes a great hostess or holiday [...]
6:42 am Oct 22nd, 2011[...] Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Spicy Pickled Garlic [...]
10:03 pm Dec 5th, 2011[...] can find her books at your local bookstore or library. Spicy Pickled Garlic (recipe from Pinch My Salt) Ingredients Approximately 1 1/2 cups peeled garlic cloves (4 – 5 heads of garlic) 3 dried [...]
3:23 pm Feb 29th, 2012Hello–just curious, how did the pickled garlic turn out? I searched your site but didn’t see a follow up…
8:22 pm Apr 14th, 2012Hi there, I was just wondering instead of the white wine vinegar could you just use pickling vinegar.
12:36 pm Dec 5th, 2012Really nice pictures. Pickled garlic is my favourite, it can be fantastic with this spicy chili.
11:37 pm Dec 28th, 2012