Garlic Confit in Olive Oil

Here’s a delicious way to cook garlic, garlic confit is simply cooking garlic slowly in a fat, in this case the classic olive oil, usually people will confit garlic when they make cod or octopus, because adding garlic gives the oil more flavor and always increases the aroma of the cod or octopus, so it’s a perfect pairing.

However, you can also confit it as in this case because I had too much garlic, as confit will preserve the garlic, also being already cooked garlic, you can eat it directly or use it in a number of dishes, you can crush it and mix it with butter to make a super smooth and rich garlic butter, you can crush it and use it as a topping for other roasts or add it at the end after it’s been roasted, you can serve it directly in salads, you can crush it and spread it on a piece of bread, as well as use it in anything you can use raw garlic for, super versatile, sweet, creamy and delicious.

Confit garlic usually lasts well about 1 month soaked in olive oil and stored in the fridge and it’s often the olive oil that starts to spoil before the garlic (changing color and starting to smell rancid), even though around here it doesn’t even lasts 2 weeks before it magically disappears hehehe! The recipe was also made in a slow cooker, but you can make it without any problems on the stove, it only takes about 1 hour on the lowest possible heat and in the slow cooker it takes about 3 hours (because it can create an even lower heat), also try to get garlic that has cloves of more or less the same size, you don’t want garlic cloves that are too small to start dissolving. On to the recipe!

Garlic Confit in Olive Oil

Servings: 6
Time: 2hr 30mins
Difficulty: Easy
Rating: ★★★★★
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Garlic confit transforms ordinary garlic cloves into a mellow, creamy and spreadable garlic spread. Extra virgin olive oil gently coaxes out their sweetness, creating a pretty nice pantry staple.

Ingredients

Garlic – 8 Heads (of garlic)
Olive Oil – Around 300ml (Virgin or Extra-Virgin if Possible)
Bay Leaf – 2 Leaves
Salt – A Pinch (optional)

Directions

Break up the heads of garlic, peel each clove, crush about two cloves of garlic just to give the oil a little garlicky aroma, pour them into a small saucepan or slow-cooker, add a bay leaf and a pinch of salt (optional, because if they’re not salted you can use them in more things, if you salt them they can become too salty for some dishes and salt can always be added later, since it’s always difficult to remove after being added).
Bring to the boil as low as possible, on the stove, cook for at least 1 hour until the garlic changes color (in the slow cooker about 3 to 5 hours), to find out if they’re to your liking it’s simple, take one out and taste it, when it’s good for you, remove everything to jars with the olive oil.

You can keep them out for 1 to 2 weeks without any problems up to 1 month in the fridge. Please note that in the fridge the oil can agglutinate, but there’s no problem with that, it’s just that the fat in the oil starts to separate little by little, if you heat it up a bit or just take it out of the fridge, the oil will return to normal.
This oil is also for use! It’s just garlic olive oil, don’t throw it away, olive oil is expensive and garlic flavored olive oil is even more expensive, use it now that you have some, you’ll see that your dishes will have a very special touch 😉 Enjoy!

Notes: You can always add a few sprigs of thyme, oregano, rosemary, you can also add spices, and make your own variation, but I notice that by adding more herbs and spices you create a specific aroma, if you avoid too many spices the flavour of the garlic comes out much stronger and also can therefore be used in more dishes.

Also note that the nutrition advice includes all the olive oil, thats why its so high on calories 🙂

This recipe for Garlic Confit in Olive Oil was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Alhos Confitados em Azeite foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.