Be Here Now with Fresh Garlic
2 September 2007 by Jean Johnson
Measure free cooking is speedy but that doesn’t mean we have to miss the ride as I explain in Cooking Beyond Measure, page 77. . . Fresh garlic can usher us into the moment if we let it. The humble aromatic a doorway into the peace of the cosmos. Even the whole bulb–it rests in the palm of the hand so easily.
Breaking into the garlic to separate out the first crescent of a clove. . . The feel of the papery thin husks that if held to the light momentarily reveal nature’s handiwork.
Then there’s giving the single cloves a sharp staccato press with the flat side of the chef’s knife. And hearing that satisfying crunch when the husks loosen their hold on the glistening ivory meat within. And lifting the clove close to inhale its unmistakable, irresistible pungency.
Babba Ram Dass may have urged us to ‘be here now’ way back when, but it’s good old garlic that keeps coming back around again and again and again.
