Making Garlic Powder? Really?

In the kitchen this week, my photography memory was spotty at best. I tried a new recipe for broccoli cheese soup, substituting cauliflower for the broccoli, since that was what I had. It was so good, but did I take a picture? Nope.

I made this Ham & Asparagus Quiche, even stopping to take a process photo. Did I take a picture of the finished product? Nope. So if you want to see a mediocre picture of the finished quiche, you'll have to click on the link. 

My husband and I were at the cabin for a couple of days last week, and I actually did remember to grab a picture of my plate before I started eating. I made up salmon patties from leftover grilled salmon, our long-time favorite sugared asparagus and I tried a recipe for one-hour rolls, which went slightly over the time limit, but tasted good anyway. You can see that I'm firmly in the "my foods don't touch each other" camp, at least initially. There are occasions when I let my hair down enough to do things like mix the noodles and peas from last week, but I have to be feeling pretty secure in my food mixology to make that happen.

So let's talk garlic powder. And the making of it. And probably the one thing foremost in everyone's mind.....WHY? Why would I do this when it's so available, cheaply, in the store??? Well, It all started with these sprouty heads of garlic that were out in the storage room. You can see they were good sized, and I didn't want to just throw them away in their sproutiness. After all, Marc had diligently planted them, and we'd watered and taken care of them, and they took up growing space in the garden. We. Had Made. Food. With supply chain issues being what they are, just chucking them made me feel a little guilty. So I got thinking. I have a dehydrator. My arms aren't painted on. If I dried the garlic, I could probably grind up the garlic and make it into powder that I could use. 

So, I did a little internet research, and pulling most from this article, I set to work. I peeled all the garlic, and then I sliced each and every clove of garlic. It was at this point that my daughter face-timed me with the twins and asked why I didn't just mince it in my food processor, then store it in oil in the fridge so I'd have ready-made garlic to just spoon in to my cooking. Admittedly, this would have been an easier option, but I'd already taken my life in my hands getting the dehydrator into the house from its buried-behind-canning-pots place in the storage room, and was feeling just stubborn enough to stick with it. If there's a next time, I'll probably do it her way. In fairness, I'd just watched a YouTube video with a gal who was using homemade garlic powder, which prompted this whole undertaking.

Carrying on, this is really fiddly stuff. It's not for those who don't want their house to smell like an Italian restaurant, either. I positioned the dehydrator in front of an open window and hoped for the best. The house did have a definite garlic smell, but it wasn't too bad. I don't mind my house smelling like garlic, but I didn't want people coming in and starting to place orders for lasagna and spaghetti, either.

It took the better part of a couple of days to get it all dried. I did get more than what's pictured here. That bowl was heaping when I finally got done.

Moving onto the grinding, I had to explain to my husband when a Mr. Coffee bean grinder arrived on my doorstep via Amazon, that I would be grinding garlic and not coffee beans with it. In retrospect, maybe I could have used my blender for this step, but I wasn't sure I'd get a fine enough powder. 

But lookee here. I did, indeed make garlic powder....from scratch, as it were. This is much more fragrant than what you buy in the store and I'm anxious to see how that translates to cooking. While I probably won't do repeat this process unless dire need arises, like the pineapple, I can say I've done it.

Comments

[AP Man]

Cool project Ma! Preppin to the max!