Garlic's great for yr body, so why not use it in recipes?

To kick things off, here's a pickled garlic recipe:

Get one of those 2-liter jars of peeled garlic (try Korean markets or Restaurant supply places) and fill it with your most-used hot sauce (I used Valentina, cuz it's cheap and has that vinegar bite that I love). Contrary to what I expected, while the result was both hot and garlicky, it was rather mild (after about 1 or 2 months), to the point where I could pop them in my mouth as appetizers! The left-over hot sauce is now garlic-infused. Cool, huh?

Wilted Spinach with Garlic

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
* 1 pound spinach, washed and stemmed, or 1 pound Swiss chard, washed, stems sliced, leaves torn
* Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir until golden, about 30 seconds. Add greens in batches, if necessary, and toss until just wilted, 2 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Garlic-Cheese Grits

Ingredients

* 4 1/2 cups water
* 1 cup grits, quick or old-fashioned (not instant)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup grated sharp Italian cheese, such as Pecorino Romano or Parmesan
* 1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or 1 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8-inch-square baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Bring water, grits and salt to a boil in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer until the grits are thick, 5 to 30 minutes, depending on the type of grits.
3. Meanwhile, combine oil and garlic in a small skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the garlic is fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
4. Stir the oil and garlic into the grits along with the cheeses and cayenne (or hot sauce); transfer to the prepared pan.
5. Bake, uncovered, until bubbling and crusty on top, about 45 minutes.

Spanish Garlic Soup recipe

ingredients list:

10 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced.
5 cups of beef broth.
1 cup of dry sherry.
¼ cup of olive oil.
French bread, sliced and toasted.
Grated Parmesan cheese.
Salt and pepper.

Instructions

Sauté the garlic in the olive oil until it turns golden.

Heat the beef broth with sherry. When the broth reaches the boiling point, add garlic and the olive oil.

Season with salt and pepper to taste; then simmer for about 30 minutes.

Strain out the garlic and reheat.

Sprinkle toasted French bread slices generously with Parmesan cheese, then place them in a 425°F (220°C) oven for about 3-4 minutes.

Put the hot toast in the bottom of soup dishes; then pour the soup over top.

Garlic Potato Pie recipe

ingredients list:

1 lb of scrubbed boiling potatoes.
6 cloves fresh garlic, sliced finely.
1 cup of milk.
¼ cup of breadcrumbs.
3 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese.
3 tablespoons of butter.

Instructions 

Preheat your oven to 380°F (180°C).

Slice potatoes thinly.

Butter a 9-inch pie plate.

Arrange a layer of potatoes, garlic slices, parmesan and slices of butter.

Repeat using the rest of the ingredients (other than the milk), saving some of the cheese and the butter.

Heat the milk and pour over top of the potatoes.

Top with bread crumbs and remaining cheese and butter.

Bake for 1 hour, until the potatoes are tender and top has turned golden brown.

Cabbage and Garlic Soup recipe

ingredients list:

8 cups of chicken stock.
6 cups of shredded savoy cabbage.
1 cup of long-grain white rice.
3 tablespoons of minced garlic.
1 teaspoon of freshly-ground black pepper.
Salt, to taste.
6 croutons.
2 tablespoons of minced parsley, to garnish with.

Instructions 

In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the garlic, 2 cups of chicken stock and rice. Bring to a boil over moderate heat; cover, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook for 20 minutes.

Transfer to a blender or food processor; then add 4 cups of the stock and blend. Return to saucepan; add remaining 2 cups stock and cabbage. Simmer for 15 minutes over low heat. Add freshly ground black pepper and salt.

Place croutons in individual soup bowls and ladle soup over. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Garlic Pepper Sauce recipe

ingredients list:

2 cloves of garlic, minced.
2 tablespoons of olive oil.
1 teaspoon of red pepper, crushed.
1 teaspoon of dried parsley.

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a pan.

Saute the garlic and pepper in the olive oil until the garlic is golden.

Toss with parsley.

Serve as desired.

Garlic Mushrooms Recipe

Suitable for vegetarians
Garlic and mushrooms work so well together that garlic mushrooms is one of the classic dishes. Everyone has their own version of the recipe, I like to keep it simple. Who needs a creamy sauce when the garlic mushrooms themselves are so nice?

This garlic mushrooms recipe serves two as a side dish or as a starter if served with toast or garlic bruscetta.

Ingredients
See note on ingredients
8 oz (225 gm) Mushrooms This will look like a lot but they reduce considerably during cooking.
Use small button mushrooms if you can get them, otherwise flat mushrooms cut into bite sized pieces.
Chestnut mushrooms have a lovely flavour however ordinary white mushrooms will do just as well.
1/2 oz (15 gm) Butter
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed As always, adjust garlic according to taste
Dash hot pepper sauce If you really can't take this you can leave it out. However it does bring out the flavour wonderfully so do give it a try.
Salt & pepper
As usual I recommend using organic ingredients wherever possible.

Method
Wash and dry the mushrooms. Melt the butter in a small pan then add mushrooms and cook at a medium heat for a couple of minutes stirring constantly. Add the garlic, continue cooking & stirring for another minute or so. Stir in a dash of pepper sauce and season with just a touch of salt and pepper.

Reduce heat to absolute minimum then cover with a tight fitting lid. Leave the garlic mushrooms to sweat for at least ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you're serving these garlic mushrooms as a side dish they'll easily wait twenty minutes or more sweating on minimum whilst you finish off the rest of the meal.

Serve the garlic mushrooms with some of the gloriously wicked garlicky butter.

Garlic Mashed Potato Recipe

Suitable for vegetarians
Turning plain old mashed potato into glorious garlic mash is simplicity itself. In fact it's so simple it doesn't need a formal recipe - instead here are three simple methods to experiment with:

Mild Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Before boiling the potatoes, peel a couple of cloves of garlic. Add these to the water and boil with the potatoes. After draining, mash the garlic in to the potato. Because the garlic has been cooked with the potatoes it will be fairly mild and slightly sweet.

Really Garlicky Mashed Potatoes
If you're a real garlic lover then don't pre-cook the garlic. Instead, boil the potatoes as normal. Then after draining them crush a couple of cloves of garlic and mash this into the potatoes along with the usual milk / butter / cream you use.

Sophisticated Garlic Mash
If you have some spare time, then for the ultimate garlic mashed potatoes make up a batch of white garlic sauce. You can do this in advance, just warm it through a few minutes before the potatoes finish cooking. When the potatoes are boiled, drain and mash with the garlic sauce instead of the usual milk / butter / cream.

Garlic Mustard Pork Recipe

This easy garlic mustard sauce is also great with chicken as well as pork.

Mustards vary tremendously in strength, in particular English mustard is very hot. This garlic mustard pork recipe works best with a mustard that's tasy without being too fiery.

Ingredients
See note on ingredients
2 Pork Steaks Use whatever cut of pork suits you best, adjust cooking time if necessary
1/2 oz (15 gm) Butter
2 cloves Garlic, crushed As always, adjust quantities of garlic according to taste
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 glass White Wine
1/4 pint (140 ml) Chicken Stock
1 TBsp Wholegrain Mustard
1 TBsp Natural Yoghurt
Salt & pepper
As usual I recommend using organic ingredients wherever possible.

Method
Melt the butter in a pan with a little oil. Brown the pork lightly on both sides then remove and set aside.

Add the chopped onion and cook gently until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute or so.

Add the white wine, turn up the heat and reduce volume by about half.

Turn the heat back down, add the chicken stock and stir in the mustard, season with a little salt and plenty of pepper. Return the pork to the pan and cook uncovered at the lowest possible heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the pork to serving plates. If the sauce is still too thin for your taste then turn up the heat for a minute or two.

Remove the garlic mustard sauce from the heat, stir in the yoghurt and serve immediately with the pork, mashed potatoes and your favourite veg.

Mike replied to dave's discussion

I'll have to try that! Here's a garlic condiment I've had at Lebanese restaurants, but never tried to make myself, yet. Pretty amazing if you love garlic.

Lebanese Garlic Dip

Here's another garlic sauce, this one's really easy.

Take as many peeled garlic cloves as ya want and dump them in an oven-proof container. Then pour extra-virgin olive oil over 'em, enough to cover. Put it on the stove or in the oven, covered w/ tin foil. Cook until the cloves are soft, remove and let cool.

Put the cloves in a blender or food processor (may more than one trip) and put some of that olive oil in w/ 'em. Puree. Bottle.

Now you have garlic sauce and garlic-infused olive oil (Bottle that, too. Keeps for some time at room temp.).

Note to garlic newbies: This cooking makes garlic sweet, like cooking onions will do.

Don't be afraid.

Also, cuz this has been on my mind, a nice Garlic Sauce Recipe to slather on meats n veggies.

You can never have enough garlic or hot peppers [it's true!]...