Yes, Of Course You Can Pair Garlic With That!
I’m announcing a one-time-only food blogging event: Yes, Of Course You Can Pair Garlic With That!
When I posted my recipe for dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), I mused that I should start a food blog event devoted to pairing garlic with hazelnut, a flavor combination that thrills me to no end. Dave and I discovered it when following some pasta recipe – the sauce was mediocre, but the first stage, hazelnut butter mixed with minced garlic, was fantastically good. I used the same pairing when making my dolmas, and loved the combination there as well.
In response to that post, one person commented:
Hi there,
I like to draw a line on the number of things you can pair with garlic and make these pairings successful. Peaches and garlic— no! Hazelnuts and garlic— no!
And here is why: garlic tends to do very well, super well, with things that are oily (olive oil), fat (cream, pine nuts) or acidic (lemon).
Hazelnuts do not contain as much oil as other nuts and for this reason, pairing them with garlic is less than optimal.
Do not forget that weird pairings, unusual pairings do not always mean successful pairings! The Greeks have been around longer than you and since hazelnuts grow in Greece, don’t you think they would have paired them together, to a great success?
So, experiment if you must but I do not predict great successes with this attempt! Sorry to rain on your parade!
Let’s prove her wrong! I disagree entirely on the garlic/hazelnut pairing, which I adore with all the adorings I’ve got. I’ve never tried garlic with peaches, but I bet I could make a pretty good barbecue sauce with the two of them together, at least.
The Greeks haven’t thought up every delicious food combination that can possibly exist. That’s the joy of food blogging – we can experiment and discover wild new creations, and sometimes they are great successes!
To participate in Yes, Of Course You Can Pair Garlic With That!, all you have to do is cook a dish that pairs garlic with something it’s not usually paired with. I have a really strong preference for seeing garlic/hazelnut dishes, but any unusual garlic pairing is fair game. Have fun with this!
The deadline is October 8, 2007 and I’ll post a round-up shortly thereafter.
Be sure to link back to this entry in your post. And once you’ve posted your entry, please send an email to me at habeasbrulee@gmail.com. The subject line should read “Yes, Of Course You Can Pair Garlic With That!”. Please attach a photo of your dish (if you have one) to the email, and tell me:
Your name
Where you live
Your blog’s name
Your blog’s URL
The name of your dish
Your entry’s URL
If you don’t have a food blog, feel free to post your entry on your non-food blog or in the comments to this post.
Great idea! I have the perfect recipe for this challenge…
do you know about the Gilroy Garlic Festival cookoff? Clearly, the best recipes need to apply …
linda – Great, I can’t wait to see it!
Stacy – That is brilliant.
I can’t even think of anything garlic wouldn’t be good with!! But really, I want to try that garlic/hazelnut combination. It sounds very intriguing and very good!
Great idea! I am up for the challenge , although I have no idea what I will make I am sure It will be fun.
Hey Danielle,
What a fantastic idea for a foodblogging event, I can’t wait to see what people come up with! And I love the pairing of garlic, butter and hazelnuts!
You go girl…I support you, of course you can pair garlic with that! I posted a baked lobster recipe recently and use my cheapo Kraft American cheese to top it instead of some gourmet cheese and got a few frown-upon comments (so I can totally understand how you feel). But in reality…cooking is a personal expression and an art, you can pair anything you want and it’s not a culinary sin that you use unusual pairings.
I have to think of something Malaysian… ;)
This is awesome! What a great idea:) I love garlic and I have an idea for an entry-I’ll have to start experimenting and see if it actually works!
How exciting-my first blogging event! Kudos for coming up with this one! This is why you are on my blogroll…that and the glassblowing:)
hmmmm…..what shall i make???
I think peach and garlic go well together – as a salsa
Excellent. I will see what I can come up with.
People are wierd.
I can’t wait to see what all of you come up with for this!
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I cannot imagine that hazelnuts and garlic would NOT go well together. And peaches and garlic could be great! In fact, I’m having difficulty imagining anything that would not go with garlic. (Okay, I can think of one: maybe chocolate cake with garlic icing might be a bit odd tasting.)
Good idea for an event, Danielle!
-Elizabeth
This is an awesome idea! I’m intrigued by the garlic hazelnut combo.
What if I don’t have a blog? can I still participate?
ejm – A woman after my own heart!
jubilant cerise – Absolutely! Like I said in the post, you can participate by posting your recipe in the comments to this post, and I’ll link to your comment in my round-up. Or post it up anywhere else you like, really.
Quite while ago I posted a pasta sauce made with apricots, huge quantities of garlic and white wine — very very unusual and successful as well, very delicious. Guess I’ll have to come up with something else. I think garlic and hazelnuts sound delightful. Garlic is actually excellent in savory dishes that have a sweet note, like a SMALL amount of fruit, because it provides the balance and keeps them from being overly sweet, IMHO…
By the way, there’s a garlic festival here, in Saugerties in the Hudson Valley in a couple of weeks. Maybe a bunch of food bloggers would like to go together? What do you think?
http://www.hvgf.org/
Mmmm, I am totally going to try to participate in this… and wow, usually in the food community (especially the cooking/recipe side) I see nothing but positive, encouraging comments, that one is pretty negative/mean. I’m glad you took it and went the positive route by creating something awesome from it :) but still, I think that was really quite downtrodden of that person. Boo them, yay you :)
Elizabeth (ejm) – Chocolate and Garlic do go well together, this was proven in the first round of TGRWT, my entry was a mocha mousse with garlic… I can’t see why a chocolate cake with mocha garlic icing couldn’t work!
I stand corrected, Tara, although I’m afraid I’m too cowardly to actually make your mousse. (I’d love to taste it though!) The idea of garlic and chocolate in a savoury dish is completely understandable – I just can’t quite imagine garlic in a sweet dish.
-Elizabeth
I’m in on this. I went through a few of my cookbooks and will share with you a fantastic recipe using almonds (same fat content as hazelnuts) and garlic.
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Thanks for easy recipe on how to make Biryanis. I will attempt to make them during vacation. I am just worried about the mess the Biryani dough will create.