Roasting whole bulbs of garlic in the oven for 40 minutes and you get soft creamy cloves with a rich, mellow, sweet flavour. Adding depth and complexity to any recipe, these little nuggets of flavour pack a huge punch for their size and can be used to enhance many different recipes.
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to Fan Oven 180°C/200°C/400°F/Gas 6
Slice the top ¼ off a whole bulb of garlic. Put in the centre of a piece of foil.
Loosely gather the foil around the garlic, pour over ½ teaspoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Seal the foil loosely around the top of the garlic and put in the oven for 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, squeeze the confit out of the cloves. (If you cannot wait and the garlic is still hot, I use rubber gloves to protect my hands.)
NB If you are making confit with more than 1 bulb, they can be cooked in the same foil – they do not need to be prepared separately.
Equipment