One of the highlights for me
whenever we’ve sat down for a northern Chinese hotpot dinner has always been
the tawny brown heads of sweet pickled garlic that were plunked down with the
plates of pickled cabbage and boiled peanuts. Fixed this way, the garlic
evolves from bitingly hot to mellow and sweet, with the vinegar and salt
providing cleansing edges. I like my garlic exotically dark, so I
use very dark brown sugar and a tasty but cheap balsamic vinegar, which also
lends a lovely tang to the little cloves.
But the real prize in this recipe
is the vinegar that emerges from this process. Nothing, but nothing can equal
this vinegar. It has everything you could ask for in a sauce: sweet, sour,
salty, garlic, and all of them in perfect balance. This one ingredient I prize
so much that I never give it away, hoarding it like a miser and serving it
dribbled over tidbits only when I'm certain that it will be appreciated.
Selfish? Oh yes indeed. But completely sensible. Wait until you taste it;
you'll understand.
Like so many of China's greatest
culinary masterpieces, this is understated, simple, and requires only a modicum
of ingredients and preparation. But also like quite a few of my favorite
dishes, this does require patience. These lovely heads of garlic have to settle
quietly into the sweetened and gently salted vinegar for a couple of months -
or even longer if you can bear it - before they surrender their fire and become
mellow enough to eat just the way they are. Then and only then do you pluck out
a sweetly drowned head of garlic, surreptitiously licking your fingers, and
squeeze a lovely clove out of its jacket and into your mouth.
If you find this as intoxicating as
I do, consider preparing a batch every three months or so and have jars
continually mellowing away in the pantry or on the shelf. I label my crocks and
so put them into regular rotation. As summer draws near, you still will
find plenty of use for them, since the luscious sauce is great in salads and
drizzled over things like fresh, flavorful tomatoes. I'm getting hunger pangs
just thinking about a still warm Brandywine tomato, sliced into wedges, lightly
salted, and oozing with this loveliest of vinegar sauces.
A note on the ingredients: I tend
to use a good, cheap balsamic vinegar here for a couple of reasons. I
haven't been too happy with the taste of lots of the Chinese vinegars I have
tried; they seem raw and yeasty, rather than tasting of rice wines that have been nudged over into the realm of delicious tartness. However, there has also been a bit of concern lately
over the amount of lead that has found its way into balsamic vinegars, so do
your research.
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| Warning: may cause cravings |
As for the sugar, my hands-down
favorite is the extremely dark brown sugar that you can buy in some Korean
markets. This sugar is soft and moist and tastes like molasses, and it works
wonders here. Finally, I have read that
Chinese garlic is unclean, full of pesticides, and often sold at such
outrageously low prices that American farmers can't compete. So, if you worry
about things like I do, buy heavy, firm, plump heads of garlic that are
organically grown, and you'll find that the flavor just cannot be beat. I take
this one step further and plant the biggest cloves so that I have nice green
shoots to cook with in the cooler months, as well as more heavy, firm, plump,
organic heads to harvest later on.
Win win.
Sweet pickled garlic cloves
Táng suàn 糖蒜
Shanxi
Makes 8 heads of pickled garlic
Special equipment:
1-quart jar or crock
A plate that fits easily inside the
mouth of the jar or crock
Garlic and brining liquid:
8 large heads of fresh garlic
½ cup sea salt
6 cups hot water
Marinade:
3 cups balsamic vinegar
2¼ cups dark brown sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1. Clean the heads of garlic, but
don’t break them apart. Peel off most of the outer layers of the garlic
skin, leaving only a layer or two over the garlic cloves. Carefully scrub
the root end and cut off as much as possible without cutting into the cloves or
breaking the heads.
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| Organic American garlic |
2. Dissolve the salt in the hot
water and let it cool. Place the garlic in the cool salt water and let
them soak for about 24 hours to remove some of the harshness and to make the
garlic as clean as possible.
3. Place the vinegar, sugar, water,
and soy sauce in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, and then stir it until
the sugar dissolves. Allow the marinade to cool down to room temperature.
4. Remove the garlic from the salt
water and place them in the clean jar or crock without rinsing the salt water
off. Pour the cool marinade over them, place the plate on top of the
garlic to help submerge them in the marinade, and cover the container. Lightly
stir the garlic every day or two for a week and then store the garlic in a cool
place for about 2 weeks before using. Taste a clove of garlic to see
whether its flavor is sweet and relatively gentle. As soon as the garlic
is pickled to your liking, pack the garlic in small jars or plastic containers
and store them in the refrigerator; they will keep a long time that way.
