To Roast or Not to Roast

Garlic, that is.
I own a garlic roaster similar to this one. I love roasted garlic, but rarely make it as it takes a long time and I hate to waste the oven heat on just the garlic.

However, I have been shown a better way!

I was watching my daughter, Sarah-Kate, cooking dinner at her house the other day. She was basically stir-frying garlic and asparagus in her electric skillet. She just tossed the garlic cloves in, peel and all. They came to the table all soft and "roasted". And the asparagus was flavored just right. Wow, how easy was that?

So, I tried it at home with broccoli. Just broccoli and unpeeled garlic cloves (a whole bulb worth) frying away in a pan. Delicious. I had also made Spanish rice and the garlic cloves were great eaten with the rice.

When I questioned her about where she picked this nifty trick up, she said she heard on some cooking show that you should always cook garlic with the peel on as it makes it sweeter. Hmmm............. She says she rarely peels garlic. While cooking in more "liquidy" dishes, the peel just disappears -- or maybe just blends in.

But, I'm hooked. I will probably "roast" all my veggies on the stove top with a bulb worth of garlic cloves thrown in! Besides tasting fantastic, it'll keep us healthy, I suppose, but don't stand too close!