Garlic judging for the Australian Food Awards at the Royal Agricultural Show of Victoria took place at the end of February. The winner was Wildes Lane for Best in Class for their Dunganski garlic, from the standard purple striped group. Dunganski is a cultivar sourced from a bazaar in Samarkand Uzbekistan in 1989.
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Letetia Ware of Tasmanian Gourmet Garlic in Middleton, Tasmania, and a board member of the Australian Garlic Industry Association, says Dunganski has been a Champion Trophy Award Winner for them, and they are offering two bulbs for $15.50. They have many other cold climate, long storing garlics that are suited to winter cooking and spring all-rounder culinary styles. Marble Purple Stripes (Marbled Blush) has a rich, mouth-filling garlic sensation and Italian Red, Italian Late, French Messidrom and Dolovsky are specialty winter saute and slow food cooking garlics that add a caramelised depth of flavour to winter dishes. Mid- to late-season garlics can be planted well up to late May very successfully and still have a great crop.
The 2019 garlic judges in Victoria included Penny Woodward, member of the Australian Garlic Industry Association and author of the book Garlic (2014) and horticultural editor of ABCs Organic Gardener magazine. David Jones, an award-winning garlic grower from South Gippsland who, with wife Kirsten, started the Meeniyan Garlic Festival three years ago, and Penny Woodward were interviewed by Jonathan Green.
Garlic breath
The winner of our Kitchen Garden giveaway ( February 5) of The Long & The Short of Pasta was Alison Foulsham of Braddon who described the following garlic experience. Alison was a newspaper reporter in rural New Zealand and says, word was out about a man who was raising money by walking from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island. The walk was part of his recovery from a heart attack, embracing life. He swore that raw garlic, raw onions and honey were his secret to recovered health. Thats what he ate every day. Quantities were significant, as was his breath. Interviewing him in a closed space, door shut, was challenging. His fragrance was so strong it leaked under the door, according to my colleagues.
Growing garlic in Canberra
Katie Mills and Evan Turnbull of The Department of Broccoli are running a workshop at Canberra City Farm on May 5 from 10am to noon. You can buy tickets through Eventbrite for their Becoming a successful backyard garlic grower session.
They are also partnering with Canberra City Farm to produce food hampers for sale at the new Forage food market on April 6 from 2pm to 7pm at Canberra City Farm, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick.
Katie and Evan are making the Lebanese garlic sauce, toum, from their own garlic, maize flour and polenta ground from their own corn. Katie has shared the recipe which came from the Serious Eats website with minor changes. She said they were first inspired to make it after buying toum from Wynlen House in Braidwood. They will also contribute homemade skin care products to the hampers.
Toum (Lebanese garlic sauce)
250g Department of Broccoli garlic cloves, peeled (you can adjust quantity up or down to taste - Katie goes up)
2 tsp salt, coarse like sock salt or Himalayan pink salt
quarter to half cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
quarter cup cold water
3 cups neutral oil (Katie uses rice bran oil)
Put garlic and salt in a food processor and pulse until you get a paste. Add two tablespoons of the lemon juice and pulse again. It will start to look fluffy. Run the food processor and pour in half cup oil in a thin stream, then one tablespoon lemon juice, repeat. When you run out of lemon juice, use the water. You should have a thick sauce that looks like mayonnaise. Store in the fridge.
Note: You can use a mortar and pestle method which is more laborious. Blending different types of garlic gives different pastes and tastes - the Australian Purple is smooth and mild, great combined with really punchy Creoles.
