Oh! My Garlic!

Oh my Garlic!


“I like to mince my garlic!”, says one  “I like to slice my garlic!”, says the other ” I like to chop my garlic! “ says yet another, “I like to pound my garlic with a mortar and pestle!”and “I like to roast my garlic (only about 40 cloves – for one dish) in olive oil!”
and “I like to steam my garlic!” and “I like to boil my garlic.” Say a few others.


 As they come on the show one by one, standing in perfectly spotless kitchens with pots and pans gleaming in the back ground and about 20 different sprightly gadgets whirring around, the chefs all look different, but their love for garlic happens to be a common theme. I hardly watch TV and yesterday, I was stuck waiting for Harnek at the hospital for hours… watching the food channel on TV.  At least, four different chefs came on the show and each one had different way of treating their “precious GARLIC.” I can imagine them keeling over in panic if for some strange reason, garlic went missing from the market.

 I was musing over alternative names for the cooking channel and I thought of “ Oh! My Garlic” or “Simply Garlic.”  The esteemed Garlic show could start with a Garlic farm where different kinds of garlic are grown and then truckloads of garlic are transported into the kitchen, and the chefs get straight to business, handling their esteemed jewel in their own favorite or “preferred” manner. I wonder if the chefs dream of garlic or love to smell garlic before they go to sleep. As, I remember an old Indian story about a poor fisher woman, who spent a night at her friend’s house. Her friend being a flower seller, had a lot of flowers, especially the jasmine flowers (that have a strong fragrance) in the house.  The fisher woman could not sleep as she got asphyxiated by the smell of jasmine flowers, she brought over her empty basket of fish, sprinkled it with water, took a deep breath to inhale the “fishy fragrance” and then went to sleep….completely at peace with herself.

Actually, I have nothing against garlic, nothing at all, I do use it in my cooking, but to me it is only just another ingredient that adds flavor to my cooking. I have not accorded it the “royal status.” My early memories of garlic are not the most pleasant ones. While my grandmother would wholeheartedly mince and chop about 10 – 15 cloves of garlic for a dish…my mother would grudgingly peel and chop about two to three cloves of garlic, as her finger tips turned bright red and itchy. She felt that garlic had a strong flavor and was too smelly. Speaking of smelly – my father started imbibing raw garlic to lower his cholesterol levels. I do remember the strong smell of garlic permeating the entire house His cholesterol levels did drop eventually Did garlic actually do the trick?

As I muse further it would not be too bad of an idea to have a cooking show that focuses on only one ingredient for a few weeks, then we could have interesting shows such as -  “The Ginger flavor”, “The pearly Onions,“ The Tomato Patch”. "Pleasant Potatoes" and “The Red Riding Radishes.” I could go on and on. Oh! Well that reminds me of the neglected garlic patch in my garden. The garlic is ready to be pulled out of the ground, I better get to work when I get home. Then I can make Lehsuni ( Garlicky) daal. Ok! I confess, whenever I am strapped for time or feeling lazy to cook I simply season my daal with roasted garlic ( finely chopped) and lemon juice……

Masoor daal ( Pink lentils)
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp    minced garlic
1    tsp lemon juice

Soak about 1 Cup of lentils in water ( for about 15 mins)
Put the lentils in a   heavy bottom 5 quart stockpot.
Add  tumeric and cumin
Cook them in about 5- 6 Cups of water ( for about 30 mins)
Add salt to taste..

Season with garlic roasted in about 2 Tbsp of oil and lemon juice.

Tip: I use a pressure cooker to cook daal and the cooking time is reduced to 4- 5 mins..