Ail Ou Echalotes Confits (Garlic or Shallot Confit)
"This recipe can be made with garlic or shallots or even pearl onions or a combination thereof. While in Gascogny, rendered duck fat would be used. You can use olive oil, lard (pure lard rendered by farmers who raise organic stock is available more and more)or other oils. The duck fat really is the best and can be re-used if strained and carefully treated. The confit is a wonderful garnish for meat or salad and can be a wonderful addition to sauces."
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 4
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 2 heads garlic (or 12 shallots or a dozen or so pearl onions)
- 2 cups duck fat, rendered (or see above)
- 1 teaspoon quatre-epices (recipe is posted separately)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
directions
- Peel the garlic and remove any green sprouts. If using shallots or onions, trim both ends before peeling.
- Heat the fat in a small saucepan over medium flame.
- When the fat is warm (not hot--you are not frying the garlic), add the garlic (or shallots or onions), the quatre epices and the pepper.
- Cook until soft, about 20 minutes for garlic, 30 minutes for shallots or onions.
- Remove them from the fat with a slotted spoon and cool on paper towels.
- If not used immediately, they can refrigerated in a small container for several days--but do not cover them with fat.
- Serves 6 as a garnish.
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Reviews
-
I made the garlic confit as part of your spinach and garlic confit recipe, using olive oil. Since then, the garlic and oil has been used for aglio olio pasta, garlic in zucchini fritters, oil as part of fried eggs, in a tomato sauce and as part of a fajita recipe. And if you use the olive oil it lasts a month refrigerated This should be a once a month recipe, you will find things to use it for almost every day, be it the oil, the garlic or both. I would imagine with the duck fat as well.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Chef Kate
Annapolis, 60
<p>I have always loved to cook. When I was little, I cooked with my Grandmother who had endless patience and extraordinary skill as a baker. And I cooked with my Mother, who had a set repertoire, but taught me many basics. Then I spent a summer with a French cousin who opened up a whole new world of cooking. And I grew up in New York City, which meant that I was surrounded by all varieties of wonderful food, from great bagels and white fish to all the wonders of Chinatown and Little Italy, from German to Spanish to Mexican to Puerto Rican to Cuban, not to mention Cuban-Chinese. And my parents loved good food, so I grew up eating things like roasted peppers, anchovies, cheeses, charcuterie, as well as burgers and the like. In my own cooking I try to use organics as much as possible; I never use canned soup or cake mix and, other than a cheese steak if I'm in Philly or pizza by the slice in New York, I don't eat fast food. So, while I think I eat and cook just about everything, I do have friends who think I'm picky--just because the only thing I've ever had from McDonald's is a diet Coke (and maybe a frie or two). I have collected literally hundreds of recipes, clipped from the Times or magazines, copied down from friends, cajoled out of restaurant chefs. Little by little, I am pulling out the ones I've made and loved and posting them here. Maybe someday, every drawer in my apartment won't crammed with recipes. (Of course, I'll always have those shelves crammed with cookbooks.) I'm still amazed and delighted by the friendliness and the incredible knowledge of the people here. 'Zaar has been a wonderful discovery for me.</p>
