Crushed garlic in a jar (Recipe: moqueca a baiana)

Another scandalous confession: I always have crushed garlic in a jar in my fridge.

Aaaaayyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee!

I can hear the screams. "WHAT is she doing with that stuff in her pantry???"

Well, right up front, let me say that garlic in a jar is never ever better than fresh minced garlic.

Never.

Ever.

So why do I always have a jar on hand?

The upside: Living out in the country, and needing to think and plan ahead for grocery shopping as the nearest store is a many-miles-away drive, I'm often caught without fresh garlic, or with garlic that's starting to green. Better than no garlic at all, garlic in a jar pinch-hits for fresh in many dishes, especially those which are long-cooked. And there's no denying the convenience.

The downside: Many brands are processed with nasty preservatives that give an off-taste to the garlic. I like Trader Joe's ($1.79 for 9 ounces, the equivalent, according to the jar label, of 51 teaspoons or 100-150 garlic cloves), because it's just garlic and citric acid — no salt, no oil, no preservatives. However, unless used almost immediately after opening, any garlic in a jar can turn rancid after a week or two in the fridge.

Of course, all it takes are a few batches of jambalaya or etoufee, beef stew, chicken, or stir fry to use up that much garlic. So go ahead, open a jar, cook up a storm. And do what I do — hide the jar of garlic in the back of the fridge!

Moqueca a baiana

A Brazilian dish that cooks in 10 minutes. Add a tiny bit of hot red pepper flakes or hot sauce for a spicier version. This recipe is adapted from one given to me by Botucatu Restaurant in Boston, many years ago. Serves 2; can be doubled.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 green pepper, sliced
1/2 medium red onion, sliced
4 tsp scallions, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, cut into eighths
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
12 oz white fish (haddock, swordfish, cod, etc.)

Directions

In a frying pan, heat the oil. Add garlic, salt, pepper, green pepper, onion, scallions and tomatoes, and sauté for 1 minute over high heat. Add coconut milk, and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add fish and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and continue to cook for not more than 10 minutes, until the fish is just cooked but not overdone. Serve with rice.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

Comments

More scandal I guess; I always have this in the fridge too.

I always have it on hand too because Indian cooking often calls for garlic paste.

Here in Korea, it is commonplace to have a plastic tub of freshly minced garlic in the fridge. You can buy whole peeled cloves, but trying to come across a whole bulb of unpeeled garlic is impossible! At first I was quite snobby about it, but now I’m sold it makes cooking so easy just to scoop out a healthy spoonful and plop it into whatever I’m cooking.

I just scored halibut caught in Alaska by a friend and am going to try MOQUECA A BAIANA with halibut. I've never made anything like this and yes, I am going to used crushed (shhhh) garlic !! Sounds like aperfect recipe for halibut.

My #1 Cooking Group is doing Korean cooking next week, and when I was copying the recipes this morning I noticed that one of them calls for crushed garlic. I feel vindicated!