Exploring Black Garlic

By Katie Barreira

This week I picked up a head of black garlic. I had never cooked with this type of garlic before, but had tried it in some great dishes (including a dessert panna cotta!) and I couldn’t wait to taste the unique, fermented ingredient on its own.

I knew that the aged head would be softer than raw garlic, but I wasn’t prepared for the plump, gummy clove that emerged from the flaky skin. I took a bite; the texture was smooth and toothsome, like that of a cooked beet and the flavor was much more mellow than raw garlic, with a licorice-like sweetness and just a hint of pungency.

A little pressure under the flat side of a knife and the clove yielded into thick paste that could be stirred into all sorts of things, so that just what I did!

Click to read more ...

Crazy for Fried Foods from the State Fair

By Katie Barreira

If a year were a roller coaster, now would be that bit right before the big drop; a steady uphill chug and then, whoosh! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and before you know it, bam, the ride’s over and it’s a new year. But even though Macy’s has already hung some tinsel, I am staying squarely in the moment and celebrating the unofficial holiday of early fall, State Fair Season.

There’s so much to love about this nondenominational tradition. Sheep shearing demos, blue ribbon bake-offs, prize winning poultry, a full-scale Jersey cow carved entirely out of butter and, at the very top of the list, the unabashed consumption of fried food.

Click to read more ...