Garlic Bread

Happy Garlic Day!

I absolutely love garlic, I can't get enough of it, I probably eat some most days, its great at adding depth of flavour to a dish. I use fresh garlic, garlic granules, garlic salt and garlic purée and sometimes all of the above! 

Then there is always the pleasure of foraging for wild garlic also known as ramsons. You may have come across it whilst walking through a wood or along a stream. It has pretty white flowers and luscious green leaves. You will find it in most places where you find bluebells, it thrives in damp woodlands and partial shade.

Although it looks very similar to lilly of the valley, which is poisonous to eat, you will never get the two plants mixed up because of the pungent smell in the air when you're walking through it. If you're still in any doubt bruise the leaves slightly and if it doesn't smell of garlic then leave well alone! 

Although you can eat the bulbs and flowers, the leaves are what you're looking for. The leaves are not as intense as domestic garlic, and taste great raw or cooked. As soon as I get my hands on some I'll post some recipes for you to try.

Meanwhile, on with the great garlic show, this isn't a recipe as such, more like a refresher on how to make the most tasty homemade vegan garlic bread ever!

Ingredients
Bread of your choice, homemade or bought
6-8 cloves of garlic, depending on how strong you like it
A few glugs of good olive oil
Handfull of finely chopped parsley
Sprinkling of salt

Method
Slice your bread any which way you choose, I tend to slice it length ways as that's the easiest to soak up the garlicky oil.

Finely chop the garlic with a knife, adding a little salt as you crush it. Finely chop the fresh parsley and mix it into the chopped garlic.

Add a few glugs of good quality olive oil and mix it into the chopped garlic and parsley, spreading it out on the board to the same length as your cut bread. 

Soak up the garlicky oil by pressing the cut side of the bread into it, mopping up every last bit. Place the two sides of cut bread together and if there is any oil left on your board run the bread through it before wrapping in silver foil. Bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes depending on the crunch you prefer.

Enjoy!

Dips Galore

I had some french-like bread left over from yesterday, which was part baked so I treated myself to a range of dips/spreads to eat with it for lunch.

I made 5 dips and did way too much for just me, I'll be eating these all week I think! The dips I settled on were:

• houmous, of course it wouldn't be the same without it, 
• olive tapenade, which was thoroughly enjoyed yesterday so I made another batch
• creamy celery, ditto the olive tapenade
• baba ganoush, an aubergine dip
• red pepper houmous

I've never really had a success with making baba ganoush at home, but after eating it at a local restaurant (the vegan and vegetarian night) I was tempted to give it another try. To make it a little sweeter I added some roasted red pepper to the blender. The verdict, not bad, but could do better, I'll have to work on the recipe before I post it. It was a little on the bitter side, I thought that these days there was no need to salt your aubergines but maybe I am wrong, its back to the drawing board for that recipe. 

The red pepper houmous was lovely though, I made up a batch of my standard houmous and halved it and added 1½ roasted red peppers to one half and blended again.

Ingredients

1 Tin of chickpeas (skins removed)*

1 Clove garlic

1 Tbsp Tahini

½ Lemon - juice only

1 Tsp Cumin

Salt & Pepper

1½ Red Peppers (roasted, skins and seeds removed)

* This is a little tedious to say the least but so worth it for the extra creaminess it gives the dish.

Method
Blend together the skinned chick peas (drained, juice reserved), garlic, tahini, lemon juice, cumin and a little of the drained liquid. Blend to your desired consistency adding more of the reserved liquid as required. Add salt and pepper to taste and blend again. Halve the mixture and blend the roasted peppers with one half.