Garlic 500g

The most fundamentally useful ingredient in the kitchen. There is almost no savoury dish that is not improved by garlic and the cook who keeps a 500g bag on hand is the cook who is always ready. Aromatic, complex and endlessly versatile, fresh garlic is the foundation of more great meals than any other single ingredient.

Worth knowing the calendar on garlic. Australian new season garlic arrives from November through to March and it is something genuinely special. Softer skin, higher moisture and a sweeter, milder flavour than stored or imported garlic. When you see new season Australian garlic on the shelf, buy it. The flavour is noticeably different and worth seeking out.

Available year round with reliable quality across the calendar. A 500g bag gives the serious home cook a generous supply that goes further than you think when stored well.

Use it every way the kitchen demands. Crushed into a pasta sauce, slowly roasted whole until the cloves turn sweet and spreadable, sliced thinly into a stir fry, pounded into a paste for a marinade, infused into oil, folded through a aioli or simply sauteed in butter as the base of almost everything worth eating.

Look for bulbs that are firm and tight with dry papery skin and no green sprouting from the top. A firm bulb is a fresh bulb. Soft or spongy means it has deteriorated and the flavour will show it.

Store it in a cool dry place with good air circulation, away from direct sunlight and away from the fridge. A small basket or open bowl on the bench away from the stove is ideal. Stored well a 500g bag will see a busy kitchen through two to three weeks without any deterioration.