I have always had a mild obsession with garlic. This was never more apparent to friends and family as it was my Freshman year of college when I wrote a nineteen page research paper solely on garlic. In my foods class I was asked to pick any fruit or vegetable to write about, and of course I had to pick my favorite: garlic!
About two years ago I was made aware of the Elephant Garlic Festival held in North Plains, Oregon every August. Well, it wasn't until this year that I was able to go, and I'm very glad I did!
It was a nice change to be around people who are as excited about garlic as I am. I even surprised a garlic grower when I knew the botanical name for garlic (for those who care, it's Allium sativum).
The festival wasn't very large (and neither is the town of North Plains), but it was the perfect activity for a few hours. There was crafts fair and some family-friendly activities, but I was really there for the food (when am I not?) so I headed straight to the GARLIC!
Several farmers were selling their varieties of garlic and elephant garlic (which is not really garlic, but is actually in the leek family). I really enjoyed browsing at Garlic Gourmet's booth, they were selling over 50 different types of garlic products!
The garlic food options were endless. One could purchase garlic popcorn, garlic bread, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted garlic cloves, garlic ice cream, and even garlic beer! I had some of the best garlic mashed potatoes of my life there and got to try garlic ice cream--which is something I have been wanting to do since I included a garlic ice cream recipe in my nineteen page garlic paper.
Believe it or not, the garlic ice cream was actually pretty good! It was a lot more "garlic-y" than I expected but I did eat the whole bowl, so I would say it was a culinary success. (FYI the garlic ice cream and garlic beer are not sold at any other time of the year, so come to the festival and get your fill!).
Here is a recipe I picked up at the festival for garlic mashed potatoes. I haven't tried this recipe yet, but maybe it's as good as the mashed potatoes I ate there!?
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Mashed Potatoes with Garlic
Prepare potatoes as usual. Peel, quarter and clean 4-6 cloves elephant garlic. Drop in pot with potatoes and bring to a boil. Turn temperature down to medium and cover for 20 minutes. Test the garlic and make sure it is soft. Whip both the potatoes and garlic together. Add butter, milk, salt and pepper to taste. I add a little (1/2 tsp) of baking powder to my whipped potatoes, it makes them lighter and fluffier. Enjoy!
3 comments:
Oh wow, I had no idea there was a garlic festival here! It looks like fun though. I really love to eat garlic tops, have you ever had any? We usually cook them like asparagus, and then they taste like a cross between asparagus and green beans, but with the garlic flavor.
No I haven't tried garlic tops, but they sound great! I wonder if I can purchase them anywhere, or if I have to grow my own?
this is a staple in my old-school german family as well - i've been trying to re-create my grandma's "bierock" pastries without a recipe for years - thanks for posting this!
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