I don’t know about you, but we consume a lot of garlic in my house. We use it whenever possible in recipes and we use extra garlic in during cold season. It was traditionally believed that, due to its odor, garlic could ward off evils spirits and vampires.
We’ve grown quite a bit as far as superstitions go, but garlic’s potential for benefits is often indisputable. Garlic is antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, diaphoretic, diuretic, and cholagogue. Garlic has a heating energy.
If you can handle raw garlic, it can be used for those harsh winters when colds suck the most. Its anti-inflammatory properties can ease a cold. A cold’s duration can be shortened due to the immune system stimulation caused by the consumption of garlic.
Garlic can also aid in breaking a fever while you have a cold.
Some with gastrointestinal sensitivities can find garlic aggravating to their specific conditions. Medicinal amounts of garlic should be avoided while pregnant and breastfeeding.
When chopping garlic for cooking, it is best to let it sit for about ten minutes after chopping/mincing at room temperature before cooking. This allows the enzyme reaction that triggers a boost in the healthy compounds found in garlic. Too high of a heat–or cooking for too long–can damage the beneficial properties.
Want to see what herbs we have in our garden? Take a look here.
So, we processed some chickens on our farm recently and I kept some from market for our family. As always, we used whatever we already had on the farm. Anything else was purchased from local markets.
The first step many people skip is the brining. We always brine the chickens we sell at market. The chicken is juicier and tastes amazing. When we keep some for the house I actually request mine not to be brined because I like to use different brines for different recipes. Brining on top of an already brined bird isn’t going to hurt it. We just have the option of just pulling what we want from the rest of the processing.
The brine I like to use for this chicken is simple. I mix enough water to cover two inches above the bird with 1/2 cup of salt and garlic powder in a large pot. I cover the pot and put it in the fridge the night before cooking (I did add more water in my above photograph).
The next day, when I’m ready to start cooking I preheat the oven to 425F. I put the chicken in my deep casserole/roasting stoneware. I cut a lemon in half and prick it and add it to the chicken’s cavity. I also add 8 garlic cloves (some always fall out).
Next, I mix homemade butter we purchase locally from another farm (raw Jersey cow milk with a small amount of raw, local honey) with salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, and 1 tablespoon of garlic powder.
Then I slather the chicken with this butter. After slathering, I add 2 cups of chicken broth to the dish and put in the oven covered for 45 minutes.
While the chicken is roasting, I harvest fresh cuban oregano and tarragon. I harvest a good handful of the oregano and about ten tarragon leaves. I chop the fresh herbs.
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
The next ingredient is a bit trickier to obtain. I use two cups of cream. I’ll be honest. I didn’t have two cups this time around. I had about a cup. I made it work because I didn’t want to go to the store. See the picture of the mason jar above? The cream has separated from the raw goat milk. I just scoop this off a few jars and I have cream for the meal.
