Back to garlic...
This evening I have been pickling garlic. After a close shave a few months ago, when I nearly ran out of shop-bought stuff, I decided to try making my own. It's more expensive than buying it, takes a while to prepare, but tastes flippin' lovely. My original batch was made like this:
Clean and sterilise jam jars (I wash them thoroughly then put them in the oven, turn on the oven to 120'C ish (NOT higher or the glass may break) and leave for 30 minutes).
While they're in the oven, start peeling garlic.
Cut any large cloves in half.
Put the garlic in a bowl and cover with distilled white vinegar (this is just to measure how much you need).
Pour the vinegar into a stainless steel pan.
Add some sugar - around 1/6 - 1/3 of the volume of vinegar. What I call a
British Standard Handful.
Add spices if you like - I put in some whole black peppercorns.
Bring to the boil for 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and continue boiling for another 5 minutes.
Put the garlic and peppercorns in your jam jars, not quite to the top. Make sure the vinegar completely covers the garlic and the jars are almost full.
Seal, allow to cool, then store.
They're good to eat pretty quickly (around 2-3 weeks), but taste even better if you can wait for longer.
The batch I made tonight, I put around 1/2 tsp of fennel seeds and 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika in each jam jar before adding the hot garlic.
House blydi stinks now.