Garlic is more than flavour of the month

WHETHER you're a head chef concocting a menu for an important event or a domestic cook knocking up dinner for the family, the principles for cooking a successful meal are generally the same.

Colour, presentation and a balanced combination of fresh ingredients are important which in restaurant terms means your food has to sound appetising on the page and look appealing on the plate, but however scientifically prepared or artistically presented your recipes may be, it's their flavours that will always provide the wow factor.

Nowadays we are familiar with the cooking smells and flavours from around the world, but when learning about the creation of flavour, French cuisine with its uncompromising attention to the basics would have to be the traditional place to start. And surely no single flavour or ingredient can be more associated with France than garlic.

Of course with the current profusion of vampires on television and in films their famously pungent deterrent will no doubt have had its profile raised. However, French chefs were relying on the intensity of garlic to flavour their dishes long before those terrified Transylvanian villagers were hanging bulbs of it around their windows to ward off Dracula.

Either for culinary or other purposes, peeling garlic is a fiddly task which is guaranteed to leave the ends of your fingers nipping and fragments of garlic skin under your nails.

Once the skins are discarded the raw cloves can be used straight away in dressings, oils and pestos. Alternatively you can avoid peeling the cloves by roasting the whole bulbs with a little olive oil then gently squeezing out the softened flesh which can for instance be spread on to bread as a snack.

In French cookery raw garlic is commonly added to stocks, soups, stews and sauces early in the cooking process to allow the flavour to infuse with the other ingredients. If you're anxious about overpowering your dish and giving your diners garlicky-breath, bear in mind that during the cooking process the garlic will mellow into a rather sweet background flavour.

Chopped or shaved garlic is also widely used to marinade raw meats such as lamb or chicken before frying or roasting. Many traditional French recipes begin by frying chopped onions and garlic in butter or oil, a simple enough process but one that is guaranteed to fill the building with a mouth-watering aroma.

If you've always shied away from using too much garlic in the kitchen you may have also found that your cooking lacks a certain depth of flavour. If that's the case then maybe it's time you took a leaf out of any French cookbook and got out your garlic press.

Andy McGregor is chef/proprietor at Blonde Restaurant, 75 St Leonard's Street, 0131 668 2917