Roasted Garlic:
2 heads garlic
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper
Cut 1/2" off the top of each head of garlic. Drizzle 1 T olive oil over each head.
Sprinkle on salt and pepper. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 min to 1 hour.
Soup:
2 heads roasted garlic
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
3 cups French bread, stale, cut into chunks
1 t fresh thyme or 1/2 t dried
Salt & pepper to taste
Bring stock to a boil. Add bread and thyme. Simmer bread in stock for 15 minutes. Squeeze garlic cloves to remove garlic from skins,
add to stock and bread. Simmer for 5 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth or blend in batches in a blender.
Add more stock depending on the texture you want.
Add salt and lots of pepper to taste.
January: My garlic crop is hanging in the kitchen and I am wondering what to do with it all - especially the hard-neck bulbs that are going to start to sprout soon. A couple years ago we went to New Orleans - pre-Katrina - and we snagged a reservation for lunch at Bayona which was, at the time, the best restaurant in a city of great restaurants. Susan Spicer, the force behind Bayona, has a signature garlic soup that we had for a starter. It was so good that when we went home I looked all over the web for the recipe and couldn't find it so... I did some experimenting and came up with this version. It is pretty close - flavor-wise. A few years later I did find a recipe for Susan's version - much different but by then I was used to mine. Here it is.
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