Garlic Oil With Crispy Bits

Author Notes

Garlic is often seen as a perfunctory ingredient in cooking, used in a slapdash, cursory manner. “We’ll put a little bit of garlic in,” Gordon Ramsay recommends in his Ultimate Cookery Course on steak. “Garlic… just one clove,” Nigella Lawson counsels, while assembling a mussel linguine on an episode of Forever Summer with Nigella.

But for me, there’s no such thing as “just a little bit” or “not too much” when it comes to garlic. I side-eye recipes that call for half a clove of garlic in a curry that claims to serve four, vilify garlic bread that I don’t smell before I see, and abandon aglio e olio recipes that call for cloves and not heads. Because to me, whether it’s in pasta, stews, or even a simple Chinese stir-fry, garlic should never be a mere afterthought, but treated as an intentional, starring ingredient. Too many times have I followed a supposedly garlic-forward recipe to a tee, only to find the end result severely lacking in pungent punch.

For moments like these—too deep into a garlic-weak recipe to turn around, but not quite satisfied with the end result—I have a secret weapon. Well, a secret stash of crispy garlic bits.

Though secret, it’s nothing fancy: Garlic, two heads worth, gets minced with a knife, thrown into a pot of cold oil, and gently fried until golden. (Though you may be tempted, do not use a garlic press, which will yield garlic that’s more mash than bits.) Crispy, sharp, and sweet, with just a hint of smoky bitterness, these garlic bits have been the savior of many a dreary dish. I’ve used this golden topping to uplift and umami-fy lackluster salads, limp noodles, and botched steaks.

Making fried garlic also yields a profound by-product—garlic oil, which has just as many applications as the toasted bits themselves. Simply start off any stir- or pan-frying with it, in place of regular vegetable oil, and the garlic oil will add an unprecedented savouriness and depth. As the late French chef and restaurateur Marcel Boulestin puts it: “It is not really an exaggeration to say that peace and happiness begin, geographically, where garlic is used in cooking.”
—Jun