Garlic Pre-peeled!

[junkofdavid2]

Do you know where to buy garlic, already pre-peeled for easy chopping and crushing?

I could've sworn I saw it available somewhere here in Bangkok, but I can't remember where...

[JohnBKKK]

Do you know where to buy garlic, already pre-peeled for easy chopping and crushing?

I could've sworn I saw it available somewhere here in Bangkok, but I can't remember where...

Hi there,

yes it is available, even at Macro, but you never know how long it has been pre-peeled .. I believe in freshly prepared Garlic and in many cases I fry the garlic un-peeled for that special roasted Garlic flavor.

John

ps. any spelling errors are due to beer ... was given some sample bottles today

[BangkokBP]

They have this available in most supermarkets, try Foodland or Tops, they usually have it in vacuum sealed plastic bags.

If you don't get lucky at any of these places, they have them by the sack at Klong Toey market (Garlic peeled and crushed and also Onions of different kinds), and a lot cheaper too.

cheers,

bp

[bkkjames]

They have this available in most supermarkets, try Foodland or Tops, they usually have it in vacuum sealed plastic bags.

If you don't get lucky at any of these places, they have them by the sack at Klong Toey market (Garlic peeled and crushed and also Onions of different kinds), and a lot cheaper too.

cheers,

bp

The pre-peeled shallots are great. However, the garlic (if you prefer the small Thai variety like me) I have not seen pre-peeled. Agree with John on this one, got to peel em fresh for the best aroma and flavour.

[junkofdavid2]

Found it already in Makro, as suggested by John, but they aren't vacuum sealed. Not bad though.

And yes, I haven't found the small ones pre-peeled.

[Lickey]

Here in North Issan, we grow our own thai garlic on the farm, the cloves are seperated, crushed with the flat of a knife and straight in the pot/pan with no peeling,

Try it, the peel disintegrates,

[sceadugenga]

I was about to suggest an easier method of peeling.

I just cut the end off the clove then crush it with the flat of the blade. The skin just slides off then.

I showed my Thai sister in law how to do it when she was preparing a party dish the other day and she adopted this method enthusiastically.

[suegha]

That's correct scea, works a treat, top and tails them, crush with the knife or wooden statula (or even your hand if it's a big clove) and easy peasy, skin all comes off. You can then chop it if required.

I must say though, I always have a jar of 'lazy garlic' for emergencies. Can you get lazy garlic in Thailand?

Edited October 25, 2008 by suegha

[bonobo]

The imported Chinese garlic is quite easy to peel. The skins come right off. Unfortunately, the taste is rather bland.

I prefer the Thai garlic myself, but it is more difficult to peel. I use to use the smae method as described above, but I bought a small garlic peeler at a fair. This looks like little more than a rubber drink coaster, but it really works wonders. You just put the clove in the middle of it, fold it over, and rub it back and forth a few times. Open it up, and the galric is peeled.

To Lickey--I know many cooks don't peel the Thai garlic, but I can always tell. TO me, the skins are pretty evident and tend to spoil my enjoyment of the dish.

[pumpuiman]

Try this method for peeling large quantities of garlic, I know it sounds crazy...but really works.

Place your cloves in a large bowl, then place another bowl of the same size on top of the other...creating a dome (two metal mixing bowls work great)

Now shake the living heck out of the whole thing...while holding the bowls together.

The harder more vigorous shaking the better.

After a minute or so...take a look. The cloves will have magically been peeled, and will be sitting in a pile of shredded paper.

I doubted this method, but was amazed at the result.

For peeling just a few cloves, the amount of energy expended makes it not worth your while, but if you wanted to peel a large amount for future use it would be worth it.

Ideally, the easiest method would be if you could put your cloves in an empty paint can, and bring it to the paint store to shake it up in the paint shaker machine.

Give it a try with one clove....you'll be amazed

From food 411 website......

A Super Easy Way to Peel a Lot of Garlic

A couple of years ago a friend gave us the most marvelous gift. Two stainless steel bowls with lips on them and this advice for peeling a lot of garlic. (an absolute must for making pesto) Separate the garlic bulbs into individual cloves and place them in one of the bowls. Place the other bowl upside down on top of the first bowl, hold the lips of the bowls together firmly, and start shaking. Don’t be afraid to shake hard. As the garlic rattles around inside and bounces off the inside of the bowl and the other cloves, the outer skin of the cloves will crack and the cloves will fall out. When you open the bowls almost all of the cloves will be bare and those with the skins still on them will pull off easily. It works fantastic and is so much easier than any other method or device we’ve tried for peeling a lot of garlic.

Try it out and let us know what you think….

Edited October 25, 2008 by pumpuiman