Smashin' garlic into mush! YUM?!?

This is going with my roasted tomatoes post (hence the tomato juice all over the cutting board) I know this sounds simple but I wanted to post it anyway... I usually buy my garlic, roast the whole 3 lbs and section it out to freeze... there are very few times where I don't substitute raw garlic for the roasted. But when I need to use raw I use it in paste form or thin slices...I don't mean to insult anyone here but it took me a few times to get my garlic into paste so I am putting this out there for all of you that are like me and need a little help in the oh so obvious things! LOL

Alrighty then...
so you start with a smack to peel (my garlic was super easy to peel today so I just pulled the paper off first but if you give the clove a good smacking it will come right out of it's paper).

Then you smack that sucka again to get it nice and flat!!!

I chop it a little, most people say they just smash but it takes too long for me so I chop really fast then I add some coarse salt. For those of you that have read this blog you know I am a pincher and have nothing against you shakers... that being said, here coarse salt would be better... if you don't have it then I would use a tiny pinch of sugar (you won't even notice in the end and it is coarse enough to do the job) mixed with the table salt.

Use the flat part of your knife, press it against the garlic and pull the knife back toward you all the while applying pressure to the part of your knife that is pressing on the garlic you only have to do this a few time and it turns into... this less than pretty glob of garlic goodness. When you use it like this you don't end up having bites of sharp garlic in what ever you are making with it.


Now doesn't that look good?!? OK so it looks really nasty but I promise the 45 sec it takes to do this is worth it. I am sure you could do a big ol batch in a food processor if you wanted to...I mean if you like the raw garlic taste over the roasted (which would be just plain weird! ;o)) then you could freeze it at this stage for later use.