aGreatChef.com Blog – Food Blog of Chef Robert Conaway

Black garlic…it seems that there is quite a buzz these days about this tasty yet exotic ingredient. I kinda stumbled on this when an editorial assistant sent me an email asking questions for an upcoming issue. I know, I know I should have been “in the know” but with the hotel nearing completion and our rooftop deck about to launch I have not been watching TV (not that I ever do) or reading as I should be. So I did a quick search in everyone’s favorite search engine, found some for sale and low and behold, 5 days later my hands were wrapped around a one pound bag of light brown garlic bulbs, awaiting my exploration and curiosity.

Today was not my a typical day round here. The hotel is buzzing with the talk of Graham Downes touches to finish up the Porto Vista hotel and we are scrambling a bit to not only finish up the month end inventory, but to also fit in staff training classes, cleaning schedules, marketing ideas, etc that seem to consume a day up very quickly. While I was pounding away on my laptop downstairs I stopped and thought….

Why did Mokie, Pete Zacarias’ yellow lab completely destroy my trash can the last two days? Mokie is the best dog I have ever met and when I arrive at my office this afternoon to see him a bit nervous and trash spread around my office makes me kinda wonder. My thoughts fly, “I did put a bit of the garlic wrapper in the trash” as I had opened up the bag of garlic bulbs yesterday for a sneak peek, er whiff. I looked up and stared at the bag of black garlic perched on my desk, maybe Mokie knows something that I don’t. I grabbed the bag and took off to the kitchen to check this hunch out!

Once up in the kitchen, humming with the sounds of dinner in full swing I crack open the bag and rip apart a bulb to get at one of the jet black cloves. Soft and lightly tacky, I take a small bite and let the flavors melt into my tongue. “Wow” is all I could conger up, it was the most pleasant ingredient I had tasted in quite a while. The texture, creamy. The flavor reminiscent of black trumpet mushrooms and very rich. My staff is perplexed by yet another “weird” ingredient that I have somehow gotten my hands on. I pass out small bites to the staff and wonder what it would taste like in a mac n cheese.

The richness needs something to carry the flavor, and my mac n cheese seems like the right call, asides from being quick and easy as my time was limited. Julienne up one clove, saute it with some pasta in a bit of oil, deglaze with some Chardonnay, hit it with the cheese sauce and reduce. What came out of this quick and easy experiment was a black trumpet/truffle-ish tasting mac n cheese that delighted not only my staff, who on occasion can be a bit reserved, but also a couple of locals who I asked to try it. I snapped a couple of photo’s and hurried back downstairs to write this all down before going back to spreadsheets and training manuals. Can’t wait to play some more with this when I find a bit of extra time.

If you have this sitting around your home you should try the mac n cheese version for yourself (I’ll post the other recipes later). The recipe is in this blog, check out the archive page to find it or. Gotta run, have fun and Bon Appetite.

Here is the recipe…

Macaroni pasta, cooked (figure about 1/2 cup dried per person)
Whole or low fat milk (around a cup for each serving)
Roux or cornstarch (enough to make the milk resemble a thin chowder)
White cheddar (about 1/4 cup per serving)
Parmesan (depends on your taste but I like 2 tablespoons, er pinches per)
Black garlic cloves (figure 1/2 clove per serving)
Salt and white pepper to taste
Sourdough breadcrumbs

to start….

1. Bring the milk to a simmer and season with the salt and pepper.
2. With a wand mixer or hand blendor, add the roux/cornstarch and blend until thickening occurs. The amount of thickener you put in will determine how thick your sauce is.
3. Cook your pasta in salted water until al dente, 7-9 minutes. Drain and cool in ice water, reserve.
4. Add grated or shredded cheeses & black garlic to sauce base and over a low heat, stir until cheese is melted.
5. Add sauce to a saute pan and heat, add pasta and cook for 2 minutes to reduce sauce and finish cooking pasta.
6. Place the mac n cheese into the serving bowl and top with the breadcrumbs.
7. Pop under the broiler for a minute to crisp, remove and drizzle/sprinkle with a bit more of the black garlic and serve.

11 April 09 update…

I am currently running this as a special at the Glass Door with the addition of some lobster tail meat. The lobster makes a wonderful addition to this dish and is worthy of mention. Try it for yourself and see! Cheers…

chefRob