Garlic Confit

A Versatile and Flavorful Ingredient

Adapted from Bouchon by Thomas Keller.

• Servings: Makes about 1 cup.

Garlic confit is made in the same way as confit de canard, only instead of poaching duck legs, peeled garlic cloves are slowly cooked in a bath of canola or olive oil.

Because the cooked cloves become very soft, when added to a sauce or even mashed potatoes, they seemingly melt into whatever they've been added to.  Use them to add complex flavor to quickly sautéed tilapia filets, a bowl of mashed sweet potatoes, steamed green beans, a weeknight quick-made tomato sauce, to a compound butter that slicks slices of London Broil, or to turn a cup of store-bought mayonnaise into a short-cut aioli.  If you love the flavor of garlic, there's no end to how a few of these soft cloves can enhance your cooking.

The oil that's used to make the confit is also a wonderful flavoring and can be used to pan cook meat or fish or be added to a vinaigrette.

Make as much as you think you will use in a month because the confit keeps refrigerated for that long, making it an easy and on-hand short-cut to flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of peeled garlic cloves (30 to 45 cloves, depending on the size of your garlic)
• 2 cups canola or olive oil

Directions

1. Trim the cloves of any root ends or marks.
2. Place in a small saucepan and cover with the oil. Make sure all the cloves are completely submerged.
3. Place over a medium-low heat and cook gently for about 45 minutes. You'll see some bubbles rise to the surface occasionally and this is fine. But don't let the oil boil -- your goal is to poach the cloves in hot but not blazing hot oil.
4. Stir the cloves every 10 minutes so to be sure that all the garlic is cooking evenly. They will begin to take on a pale golden color.
5. The confit is done when the garlic cloves are all very tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.
6. Remove from the heat and let the garlic come to room temperature in the oil.
7. Store refrigerated in an airtight container, with the garlic completely covered in oil, for up to a month.