Crushed garlic in a jar (Recipe: moqueca a baiana)

Updated April 2012.

Another scandalous confession: I always have crushed garlic in a jar in my fridge.

Aaaaayyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeee!

I can hear the screams. "WHAT is she doing with that stuff in her pantry???"

Well, right up front, let me say that garlic in a jar is never ever better than fresh minced garlic.

Never.

Ever.

So why do I always have a jar on hand?

The upside: Living out in the country, and needing to think and plan ahead for grocery shopping as the nearest store is a many-miles-away drive, I'm often caught without fresh garlic, or with garlic that's starting to green. Better than no garlic at all, garlic in a jar pinch-hits for fresh in many dishes, especially those which are long-cooked. And there's no denying the convenience.

The downside: Many brands are processed with nasty preservatives that give an off-taste to the garlic. I like Trader Joe's ($1.79 for 9 ounces, the equivalent, according to the jar label, of 51 teaspoons or 100-150 garlic cloves), because it's just garlic and citric acid — no salt, no oil, no preservatives. However, unless used almost immediately after opening, any garlic in a jar can turn rancid after a week or two in the fridge.

Of course, all it takes are a few batches of our house special jambalaya to use up that much garlic. So go ahead, open a jar, cook up a storm. And do what I do — hide the jar of garlic in the back of the fridge.

Moqueca a baiana

From the pantry, you'll need: olive oil, crushed garlic, kosher salt, fresh black pepper, onion, coconut milk.

A Brazilian fish stew that cooks in 10 minutes. Add a tiny bit of hot red pepper flakes or hot sauce for a spicier version. This recipe is adapted from one given to me by Botucatu Restaurant in Boston, many years ago. Serves 2; can be doubled.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 green pepper, sliced
1/2 medium red onion, sliced
4 tsp scallions, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, cut into eighths
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
12 oz white fish (haddock, swordfish, cod, etc.)

Directions

In a frying pan, heat the oil. Add garlic, salt, pepper, green pepper, onion, scallions and tomatoes, and sauté for 1 minute over high heat. Add coconut milk, and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add fish and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and continue to cook for not more than 10 minutes, until the fish is just cooked but not overdone. Serve with rice.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Cioppino
Leek, potato and salmon soup
Moqueca (a different version)
Thai tofu and winter squash stew
Vegan red curry tofu with spinach and mushrooms

Other recipes that use these pantry ingredients:
Sudado de pescado al coco (fish stew with coconut), from My Colombian Recipes
Coconut-lime turkey (or chicken) and rice soup, from Kalyn's Kitchen
Tom yum seafood soup with coconut milk, from Noob Cook
Salmon fish stew, Brazilian style, from Simply Recipes
Indian fish coconut curry, from Steamy Kitchen

Comments

More scandal I guess; I always have this in the fridge too.

I always have it on hand too because Indian cooking often calls for garlic paste.

Here in Korea, it is commonplace to have a plastic tub of freshly minced garlic in the fridge. You can buy whole peeled cloves, but trying to come across a whole bulb of unpeeled garlic is impossible! At first I was quite snobby about it, but now I’m sold it makes cooking so easy just to scoop out a healthy spoonful and plop it into whatever I’m cooking.

I just scored halibut caught in Alaska by a friend and am going to try MOQUECA A BAIANA with halibut. I've never made anything like this and yes, I am going to used crushed (shhhh) garlic !! Sounds like aperfect recipe for halibut.

My #1 Cooking Group is doing Korean cooking next week, and when I was copying the recipes this morning I noticed that one of them calls for crushed garlic. I feel vindicated!