Hellomy Foodie Friends!   

Everyone has their own way of prepping garlic. As I noted in earlier articles, I am a true connoisseur of some of our greatest movie directors and writers of past and recent decades. One of my favorite Martin Scorsese films is “Goodfellas.” Recently, I watched the movie again and caught a big culinary tip. The character Henry narrates a cooking secret: “In prison, dinner was always a big thing. We had a pasta course and then we had meat or fish. Paulie did the prep work. He was doing a year for contempt, and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor and he used to slice it so thin that it would liquefy in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system.”

Slicing garlic thin infuses garlic into the dish giving you a hint of garlic without biting into raw garlic. When cooking sliced garlic in oil, the garlic flavor will mellow during the cooking. However, you will get a flavor that is closer to roasted garlic. This procedure is excellent for sauces and frittatas. An excellent tool to use to get consistent and thin slices is a truffle/chocolate shaver. The truffle shaver cuts paper thin slices of shallots, truffles, garlic, chocolate, and hard cheeses. It is made of stainless steel with an adjustable blade that allows for precision thin slices. Stop by Compliments to the Chef, Your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery Store located at 33 Railroad Place, to assist you with your culinary needs and to find a shaver that can help you cook garlic the Goodfella way! Here is a delicious recipe to use your truffle shaver for. Remember my Foodie Friends: “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”

Take Care, John & Paula