Celebrating the Stinky Rose

Soon we will be harvesting garlic in our region. Yeah!!! I just love garlic; aka. the Stinky Rose. I cannot imagine cooking without it. In my book, it is as vital as salt. When I smell garlic cooking, it reminds me of our wonderful past summer vacations on Martha's Vineyard.

Garlic is very fashionable. In the past twenty-five years, the use of garlic in the United States has quadrupled. We grow close to 225,000 tons each year in the United States. In addition to being a wonderful culinary ingredient supposedly garlic has many medicinal benefits as well.

Mark Your Calendars: On Friday, July 30th, the Cohoes Farmers' Market will be sponsoring a Garlic Festival from 4:00 - 7:00 PM. They are incorporating the event with an Explore Cohoes night so....attendees can visit both the Farmers' Marker as well as participating businesses to receive garlic recipes and in some cases garlic recipe samples too!

A recipe to share; we had it with dinner...yummy!!!!

Spiral Loaf with Caramelized Onions & Garlic

Makes One (1) 10 X 5 Inch Loaf

INGREDIENTS
1 T active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 T sugar
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
5 cups unbleached flour
1 T kosher salt

FILLING
1/4 cup olive oil
1 t rosemary
1 t oregano
1 jumbo sweet yellow onion
6 plump garlic gloves; smashed and minced
1 T melted butter

In a small bowl, mix together yeast, warm water and sugar. Let stand until creamy, five to ten minutes.

In a bowl mix milk, vegetable oil and yeast mixture. Slowly add four cups of flour, then one tablespoon of slat.

Knead dough until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed. Transfer dough to large oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours).

While dough is rising...
Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add fresh herbs. Add onions and garlic. Cover tightly, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often until onions are golden (20 to 30 minutes).

Oil a 10 X 5 bread pan. Punch dough down and turn out on a lightly floured board. Roll or pat dough into a rectangular 9 inches wide and 18 inches long. Spread cooled onion/garlic mixture eveningly over surface of the dough. Tightly roll dough up. Place roll in bread pan, seam-side down. Loosely cover and let rise (45 to 60 minutes).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes. Then gently remove bread from pan and place directly on oven rack. Continue to bake for another 10 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.
ENJOY!!!