“A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.”
–old New York Yiddish saying
The old Yiddish saying above sums up the ying and yang (to mix-up religious references) of garlic. Garlic breath battles garlic health. Does chewing on a parsley leaf really cure garlic breath? A chicken recipe with forty clove of garlic, oh my goodness!
Despite the obvious drawbacks, garlic predominates on lists of healthy things to eat. The listed benefits derived from garlic are lengthy, including the ability to make demons disappear, protect one from plague, and improve ones love life. How can you go wrong with an herb that can do all that?
In the Mediterranean Diet, garlic holds up one of the pillars upon which most recipes are constructed. When you think of Mediterranean Foods, garlic comes immediately to mind, up there with olives, olive oil, pasta, tomatoes, wine, and cheese. The use of garlic may contribute to report after report on the benefits of following a Mediterranean Diet.
Recent research has shown that garlic aids in the reduction of heart disease by:
- Lowering total cholesterol
- Lowering LDL (bad) Cholesterol
- Lowering blood pressure
- Keeping blood thin reducing the chance of blood clots and strokes
- Acts as an antioxidant
The history of garlic goes back thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian and Indian texts dating back 5,000 years, refer to garlic, The Babylonians used garlic 4,500 years ago.
Even then, garlic provided a low-tech antibacterial drug, used to treat wounds and infections. As recently as the First World War garlichelped, prevent bacterial infections.
For those of you who have read my Health News Notes, (request a copy at grimshawe@telus.net and see the Free! Link on the side bar) about NO (Nitric Oxide) understand the importance of NO in Heart Health. Garlic physiologically increases the amount of NO in the body. NO helps to make the walls of the arteries more pliable or elastic, as opposed to the hardening that happens over time.
What the ancients knew instinctively, what the cultures of the Mediterranean Basin used as a cornerstone of their cuisines for healthy living, now becomes the gospel of modern science. Hubris seems to be a disease of modern medicine.
On the lighter side, researchers in Europe used 2 batches of six leeches to determine how long it took leeches to bit the authors of the study after imbibing one of three substances: Stout, Sour Cream and Garlic. Their conclusions — Beer disorganized the leeches’ behaviour, skin contact with garlic proved lethal, while the effect of soured cream was uncertain.
Draw your own conclusions!
While that is all very interesting, the best thing about garlic is the taste. Most of my favourite recipes use garlic as a central theme.
Here is a great example:
Chicken Cooked with Forty Gloves of Garlic
This is my own recipe developed from a similarly named recipe.
What you Need,
A good clay roaster (remember those) or other vessel with a tight fitting lid that can go in the oven without damage.
I chicken, roasting is best or a fat fryer if nothing else is available
A few stalks of celery, cut length wise and criss-crossed in the bottom of the roaster.
Several carrots, peeled
Several onions peeled and quartered
Olive oil
Forty cloves of garlic, there about.
White or Red wine, what ever is at hand.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
How to Throw it Together:
The celery is like a stand, made by criss-crossing the stalks in the bottom of the roaster. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and rub with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Set the chicken on top of the celery, and place the other vegetables around the chicken. Throw in the unpeeled garlic cloves. Pour in half a bottle of wine. Cover and cook in the oven at 350ºF for 2 hours.
Went the chicken is falling apart tender, pour off the liquid into a gravy boat taste and adjust the seasoning. Arrange the chicken and vegetables on a platter pour over some of the pan juices. Serve with good grilled crusty bread on which the roasted garlic is squeezed then use the bread to mope up the juices.
Serve with a robust red wine. Pass the parsley separately and remember Alexander Dumas who said:
“Everybody knows the odour of garlic except the one who has eaten it and wonders why everybody turns away from him.”
Moral of the story: Share!
Good Food, Good Living
Nick Grimshawe
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