By Ellen L.Published: 2015-03-30
Ah, garlic! That humble culinary bulb, the stinking rose! People always say that garlic is one of those things where either you love it or you hate it. For myself, I have found that my personal relationship with garlic fluctuates. Sometimes, in some forms, I love it! And sometimes, in other forms, I can find myself avoiding it. I can't imagine cooking without it and yet, when I was pregnant and for a long time after, I could not stand raw garlic. And then I swing back, ruminating on the creamy flavor of garlic after a deep slow long roast...or the flavor layers one smashed bulb can add to a simple stir fry!
One thing I have always found harder to like is raw uncooked garlic. Recently we decided to try making Chinese Pickled Garlic, or 醃蒜頭, and I was really, really pleased to find that this sweet vinegary pickled garlic is not only immensely more yummilicious than raw garlic, but also packed with great health benefits and you also end up with the most amazingly garlicky flavored vinegar syrup in the world!