I bought a huge bag of peeled garlic cloves a couple weeks ago because the deal was too good to pass up. After using generous garlic in everything I cook for a week straight, I still had about a cup left, hence the decision to confit them in olive oil so I can keep using them for another month or so.

Have you ever tried garlic confit? To confit something simply means to cook it in oil low and slow, and is often use as a way to preserve food, such as onion and tomato. All you need is olive oil and garlic cloves, and you can get fancy with it by adding peppercorns and herbs to infuse the flavor further.

If you are a garlic lover like me, give this recipe a try! The garlic cloves are soft and sweet, creamy and smooth, just melt away in my mouth, the oil is great for general cooking as well. I add the confit to everything! It is great as soup toppings, on poached eggs, smeared on toasts for an even more amazing sandwich (Up your grilled cheese game!!!), mix with mayo and lemon juice for a tasty aioli…etc. And yes, put some on top of seared steaks and grilled chicken, thank me later.

Garlic Confit

Ingredients

• Fresh garlic cloves (trim the ends or not, up to you)
• Good quality olive oil (enough to cover the garlic cloves)

Directions

1. Heat oil in a sauce pan over low heat.
2. Add in the garlic cloves. The oil should cover all the garlic cloves.
3. Cook over very low heat (lowest setting on your stove), for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until tender. The cloves should not brown, and some bubbling in oil is normal. (Optional: Add in herbs, chili, and peppercorns if you’d like, to add even more flavors to the confit.)
4. Skim off any impurities that may rise to the surface of oil. Pour garlic and oil into a sterilized glass jar and keep refrigerate. The garlic confit will keep for a month in the fridge.

Note: It’s important to use a clean spoon to remove the garlic from the jar every time. The olive oil may solidify when chilled, just take the jar out of the fridge 15 minutes prior and the oil will return to its liquid state.