Garlic Confit

Garlic Confit

Garlic confit (proun. con-fee) is garlic poached in olive oil. Although this is a common recipe, it is usually done on a stove top in a saucepan. Recently I was making some soups and wanted the confit but really didn’t want a huge batch. So I cheated and sliced the garlic into the bottom of the slow cooker and covered the slices with olive oil, turned on the slow cooker and prepped the rest of the soup ingredients. One hour later I had garlic confit. This led me to this technique. It took close to two hours; however the results were fool proof. Just don’t do what I did and turn the slow cooker to high and walk away. Although it didn’t burn, there are a few small cloves that are browner than desired.

Use the garlic and oil to sweat vegetables for soups and stews. Combine two tablespoons of whole garlic cloves and three tablespoons of the garlic infused oil, mash and add kosher salt to taste and smear on toasted bread. This is also a great base for sauces.

Garlic Confit

1 cup whole peeled garlic cloves
1 ½ cups cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

Place the garlic and olive oil in a medium slow cooker. Add additional oil if needed to completely cover the garlic cloves. Set the slow cooker to low and cover. Poach for two hours or until the garlic can be easily pierced with a fork or metal skewer. Cool, remove the garlic from the oil and store in an airtight container refrigerated for one week. Store the oil also refrigerated for up to one month.