WHAT IS BLACK GARLIC?
It’s garlic that’s black - duh!!! Ok ok, aside from the obvious black garlic is simply fermented garlic. It starts off like regular garlic, white in colour and during the fermenting process it becomes this beautiful velvety black colour. How does it taste you ask? To me it’s got this amazing umami flavour. A caramelised taste, balsamic and molasses. It’s been likened to eating black jellybeans in texture. Unlike white garlic you can eat it raw without warning off every vampire in a 100 mile radius. It’s almost sweet in taste but kinda like aging cheese. I know, I know your mind is doing cartwheels and somersaults at the same time wondering about it 😉 So better read on to see how easy it is to make black garlic aioli.
CAN YOU MAKE BLACK GARLIC AT HOME?
It’s a bit of a process! Not because it’s hard to make but it takes time and patience. Nowadays it’s available in many grocery stores or markets but it’s fairly pricey. If you own a rice cooker with a “keep warm” function you are in luck because a) you can now make black garlic and b) sell it to your mates to cover your costs 😉 or c) be a good friend and share your wealth!!
Simply put to make it yourself all you need to do is place garlic inside a rice cooker and leave it alone for 10 days to 3 weeks. I did mention patience didn’t I? Leave the rice cooker on warm, place the date you put it in and then leave it alone.
Downsides of making it yourself
- your house will STINK of garlic
- do you really wanna have your rice cooker on for that long
And that’s why I leave it to the professionals!!! Aside from this black garlic aioli recipe here are others on my site that may provide you with some inspo
Happy Cooking and Happy Eating Friends!!
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks
- 40 g black garlic
- 1 tsp squid ink
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 pinch salt
- .5 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse to combine
- Slowly add in olive oil and continue to blend until aioli thickens
- Store in fridge in airtight container and consume within 3 days
Notes
Essential Tools
- measuring tools
- blender
- airtight container
Tips/Tricks
- i used 2 egg yolks in this recipe but you can just use 1 if you prefer. Using 2 yolks will give you a thicker aioli so it depends upon the texture/application you are looking for. For example with chips I use 1 yolk but as a sauce with steak I use 2 yolks.
This is long but I feel like I need to explain... Bear with me...
So I make unagi sauce all the time. Can I substitute that for the squid ink? Like Tom, I'm landlocked in Kentucky, USA and I'm not even sure most people around here have ever even heard of squid ink, let alone stock it at the local grocers, even though it's a chain franchise grocer. I'm just afraid the unagi sauce would be too sweet and too much unami (is that even a thing?) and I REALLY want to get this special upcoming dinner I'm planning, right...
Back story...
I was afflicted with trigeminal neuralgia (4 years ago) and anesthesia dolorosa (11 months ago) and haven't eaten any solid food since mid-September, at all. I'll be having a brain surgery called a Nucleus Caudalis DREZ to correct both diseases in a couple, few weeks. When I get home from the hospital about a month later, I'm planning on having my 45th Birthday, First Feast in Forever Bash (or 45BFFFB for short) and inviting the few people who've stuck by me through all this shite, to stuff their faces with food that's mostly locally foraged and sourced by yours truly.
I'll be serving homemade everything. Starting with MY sushi 2 ways: Crab, cucumber, yum-yum, (choice of seaweed or soy paper) rolled in my special sushi rice, tempura with homemade unagi sauce, homemade sweet pickled ginger & homemade wasabi. Next is a 1/3lb stuffed with Lancashire cheese, grilled, 100% Wagyu beef burger on homemade sourdough (maybe brioche) topped with locally foraged & fresh chanterelles, black garlic aioli (and I wanted a black garlic aioli like yours I can make the morning of or night before), topped with a selection of local garden vegetables for them to choose from. On the side, a simple, but delicious, Smokey Gouda & Edam with shallots & chervil, baked mac & cheese. Last but not least, my homemade "dump" sweet, buttery peach and Chèvre des neiges (with grapefruit zest, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, tarragon, and nutmeg) cobbler. And, of course, my homemade overnight saké to drink.
Is this too much?? I really want to excite not only my palate for the first time in nearly a year but watch my closest friends enjoy feasting on something I loved sitting here and coming up with but hopefully being actually ABLE to execute after the surgery. I've never really seen, or tried, any of these recipes anywhere, they're just my own creations I've come up with while being bedridden & starving, losing about 70lbs, for the last 11 months. The only things I can't purchase produced locally are the sushi ingredients, black garlic, Wagyu beef, and some of the cheeses. I have to order those things, but most of the nonperishables I already have on hand. Do you have a preference in brand of black garlic? I've only ever purchased it from Amazon. Can I use grapeseed oil in place of olive oil? And then there's the whole.... squid ink dilemma...
Zachari,
Firstly, best of luck with the surgery - I hope it all goes well for you! Secondly, the menu sounds EPIC - I'm sure you will nail it! The squid ink is 100% necessary - it adds a darker richer colour and flavour but if you don't have any the dish won't be ruined! I do know that Amazon sells cuttlefish ink so you should look them up. Black garlic - my local veg shop here in Australia stocks a local brand so I use that one. Grapeseed oil will work fine for your aioli too
Hope this helps - all the best!
Hi,
Is the squid ink necessary?
Hoping to make this for a Steak Sandwich I do, but don’t have easy access to squid ink.
Tom
It’s not 100% necessary - it adds a darker colour and a richer flavour but you can defo make it without it. If you have a local fish shop you can try there as they may have some but you can defo make it without it