Since garlic is used in so many recipes, it is important that you know how to mince it! Fortunately, all you have to do is crush a toe to peel it off. Hold the knife well so you don’t cut yourself, and chop the clove of garlic as finely as you want. The more you practice, the faster you get, so go ahead! But one precaution in using minced garlic is that you should know how much minced garlic equals one clove? So use the right minced garlic’s quantity in your cooking.
Separate and peel the garlic cloves
1- Press the flat side of a knife on your toe to loosen the shell. Place the blade of a chef’s knife on the clove of garlic so that it rests on the toe. Hold the handle of the knife with one hand and place the palm of the other hand on the flat blade. The pressure of your hand crushes the toe.
You don’t have to flatten the clove of garlic when crushing it. Just apply enough pressure to loosen the shell.
2- Peel the peel off the clove of garlic. Use your thumb and forefinger to grab one end of the peel, then either shake the garlic out of the peel or use your fingers to gently peel the peel off the garlic.
3- If you need several cloves, crush a whole bulb of garlic. If you’re going to be chopping more than three or four cloves of garlic, speed it up. Instead of peeling off individual toes, place both palms of your hands on a whole bulb of garlic and press down to separate the toes.
So, this is all about to mince the garlic for your cooking and taste. But always keep focus to keep the minced garlic to cloves proportion level so your taste can be maintained.
Tip: To quickly peel several cloves of garlic, place them in a bowl and put a lid on. Shake the bowl vigorously for about ten seconds. You should now be able to take out the peeled garlic cloves.
Chop the garlic by hand
1- Cut off the dry stalk side of the garlic. If you look at the peeled clove of garlic, you’ll see a narrow point on one side and a wide, dry end on the other side, where the toe was attached to the stem. Use the knife to cut off the small, dry piece.
Even if the dry stalk is edible, it is tough and will not soften in your dish when cooked.
2- Cut the garlic clove into thin slices. To avoid cutting yourself, curve your thumb and fingers towards your knuckles and hold the clove of garlic in place. Hold the chef’s knife in the other hand and cut through the garlic clove. Make the slices as thin as you like.
If you want to finely chop the garlic, make the slices as thin as possible. For coarsely chopped garlic, it’s okay to leave the slices a little thicker.
3- Turn the knife 90 degrees to cut the garlic into pieces. Keep one hand on the handle of the knife and position the fingers of the other hand so they rest on the blade of the knife near the tip. Rock the blade of the knife back and forth so it doesn’t slip off the cutting board and keep your fingers out of the way. Cut the garlic into large pieces in a direction perpendicular to the slices.
If your recipe mentions coarsely chopped garlic, it’s time to use the pieces.
Variation: If you prefer, you can also fix the garlic and chop it with a tapping movement from top to bottom instead of rocking the knife back and forth.
4- Keep chopping if you want it to be finely chopped. If your recipe mentions finely chopped garlic, push the garlic bits back into a pile and keep chopping until the bits are as small as you’d like.
If you want to make a coarse garlic paste, sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the chopped garlic. Use the flat blade of a knife to crush and spread the garlic until it becomes a paste.
Tips:
You may have seen garlic peelers before. Typically, you put a clove of garlic in a silicone cylinder and roll it on the countertop to loosen the peel.
What you need
A knife
A cutting board
Thank you.
