Recipe Faux Garlic Cloves with Mannitol
Once again this delicious and unusual recipe demonstrates the culinary marvels of garlic.
Try it and tell us what you think! ;)
Method
Peel the garlic cloves and slice them as thinly as possible.
Poach over a low heat in oil, removing from the heat before they change colour.
Add the cream, a pinch of salt and pepper and stir slowly over a medium heat until the cream thickens.
Remove from the heat, blend with a whisk and set aside to cool.
Once cool it will have a creamy texture. Place inside a piping bag without a nozzle, or use two teaspoons.
Place cling film on the worktop and cut it into rectangles, as in the photo. Place a teaspoon of the cream on the cling film rectangle and wrap it into the shape of a garlic clove. Place in the freezer for 2 hours.
Make 3 per serving.
Afterwards, place the mannitol powder in a saucepan over a medium heat and wait for it to turn liquid. Be very careful at this point because it has reached very high temperatures. Remove from the heat.
Remove the garlic cloves from the freezer and three by three remove the cling film, and with the help of a needle, prick them and submerge them in the mannitol, removing them carefully once covered.
Repeat this process twice and carefully set the cloves aside on a sheet of greaseproof paper. They have a hard, crunchy coating, but inside they are creamy and fragile.
Before removing the needle, blow carefully on the clove to cool it.
Repeat this process for all the cloves and set them aside.
Meanwhile, place the finely sliced onion, carrot and courgette in a saucepan over a medium heat and cook until soft, but not golden.
Add a finely chopped clove of garlic and poach everything lightly. Add the bread cut into small cubes and increase the heat.
Sauté everything, adding salt and pepper to taste and remove from the heat.
FINISHING THE DISH:
On a plate or in a small bowl, place the sautéed vegetables (steps 9, 10 and 11) and on top of this, whilst still warm, place four small blackberries, three faux garlic cloves (as though they were sprouting out through the earth) and decorate with edible flowers.
Sprinkle Maldon salt over each clove.
TIPS FROM THE CHEF:
Be very careful with hot mannitol. It can do a lot of damage if it splashes onto the skin. It cools very quickly, like a drop of hot plastic on the skin, burning and solidifying very quickly.
Once cold, the mannitol left-overs in the saucepan will turn very hard. Clean by filling with hot water and reheating on the stove until the sugar separates from the saucepan.
Lots of different creams and pralines can be used in this recipe, such as Idiazabal cream cheese, or hazelnut praline.