Recipe: Garlic oil / roasted garlic vs confit garlic

A lot of people list roast garlic as one of their favorite things.  It's great to sit at a table with some good bread and a fat bulb of roasted garlic and dig in.  It's less great when a recipe calls for roasted garlic and you have to roast the bulb, then squeeze out the garlic one by one to get what you need.  What I started doing over the years was converting to poached garlic to the point that it's all I use now except when serving the traditional roasted garlic as a dish on its own.  For the cooking process, the benefits are huge.  It's much easier to peel raw garlic in bulk than after cooking (and you always lose some garlic that sticks to the skins) and you always end up with some super-flavourful oil to use later cooking something else.  The poached cloves also retain their shape superbly and make great garnishes for antipasto or charcuterie platters.  If you like, you can add herbs to the poach and both flavour the garlic and the resulting oil.  Either method you choose, here's the method for each.

Roasted Garlic

Method:

 - set the oven to 350F / 177C
 - peel away the outermost skins of the bulb, just leaving the inner one or two
 - trim the top of the bulb to expose the tips of the cloves
 - place the bulb in a ceramic dish or in some tin foil
 - drizzle the top of the bulb with olive oil
 - wrap the tin foil around the bulb and place in the oven
 - roast for about 45 minutes - make sure the cloves are soft
 - let cool slightly
 - serve


Poached garlic

Method:

 - peel all the skins off the garlic, separating the cloves and peeling them as well
 - trim the root ends from the cloves
 - submerge the cloves in the oil of your choice (I often use grapeseed to keep the oil's flavour pure garlic
 - add any herbs you like
 - slowly bring up to a medium heat - try not to even simmer
 - let cook until fully soft
 - cool in the oil
 - strain the garlic out of the oil and drain well
 - reserve the oil for later
 - use the garlic as needed