Nothing like the taste of garlic in the morning
I started my day at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 30 just
after the event opened for the day at 10 a.m. It was a strategic
move on my part to avoid the crowds and the heat, and it worked out
well.
Nothing like the taste of garlic in the morning
I started my day at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 30 just after the event opened for the day at 10 a.m. It was a strategic move on my part to avoid the crowds and the heat, and it worked out well.
Though it was well before noon, we lined up at Gourmet Alley to get a sampling of items to share. I brought a friend who had never been to the festival, so my family and I bought a bunch of different items to share. We ended up buying one of each of the items we consider staples in my family – a tray of stuffed mushrooms, a bowl of pasta con pesto, a bowl of marinated mushrooms, garlic bread and a pepper steak sandwich. My parents also wanted to try the Alley Wrap, which was new this year. The wrap is filled with rice, steak and shrimp, though reports from my family said that the protein pieces were few and far between. The mushrooms and garlic bread lived up to expectations as always, though the pesto I had was not warm enough and lacked a little flavor.
Once we were armed with a good spread of food, we headed to watch the Great Garlic Cook-Off, which was held from 10 a.m. to noon. The event featured eight finalists – some from northern California and others from as far away as North Carolina – who vied to be the Garlic Cook-Off champion.
Inside of the cook-off stadium, the bleachers were filled as the cooks frantically worked to complete their dishes, which included such varied ingredients as fenugreek, a type of Chinese spice, lemon grass and pink sea salt. Each recipe, of course featured plenty of garlic.
Dan Green and Kate Callaghan served as the emcees for the event with five judges tasting each dish. The judge’s included Jay Minzer, a personal chef from Florida; Andrea Froncillo, of The Stinking Rose Restaurant, in San Francisco; Evelyn Miliate, the food editor for Raley’s, Bel Air, Nob Hill Foods; Majid Bahriny, of Mama Mia’s Italian Restaurants; and Wendy Brodio, a food consultant for Art of Food TV.
Green and Callaghan made the rounds to each of the food stations, asking the competitors to talk about their dishes and show their techniques on two large projection screens that allowed viewers to get a better look at the action at the outdoor kitchen areas. Each station had a sink, stove, oven and counter prep area.
Jamie Brown-Miller, of Napa, talked about how she created garlic paper for her stacked steak Napoleon dish.
“It was a couple of days worth of trial and error,” she said, adding that making the paper was a bit like making meringue cookies, with egg whites and cream of tartar. “I have another batch in the oven. I want to pick the pieces I will use for stacking.”
The recipes mostly mixed protein and vegetables to make savory dishes with garlic, such as the garlic and lobster curry corn chowder with sweet potato bites and Thai garlic and hot chili swirl, made by Judy Reynolds, of Bloomington, Indiana. Reynolds was the first person to plate up her dish, and she had a little trouble as her chili sauce spilled to the floor.
She got enough on the plates to serve the judges, and they commented on the flavors. Other dishes included spicy tuna towers with garlic three ways, by Derek Thurman, of Charlotte, North Carolina, who included some instructions to the judges as his dish was plated. He suggested they eat the fried wontons by getting a bit of the tuna and sauce, similar to eating nachos.
Susan Mason, of Milton Washington, was the sole participant to serve up a sweet dish. She went with lime in de coconut garlic tarts.
“It’s a wonderful garlic dessert,” she said, as the emcees talked with her, adding that it would be refreshing in the warm weather. “It is limey and delicious. I take candy garlic sliced thin … and put it into the crust.”
Other dishes included Christopher Ranch pesto chicken with garlic-laced stone fruit sauce, by Mary Shivers, of Ada, Oklahoma; garlic-covered pork and pork-covered garlic, with roman gnocchi and paprika cream sauce, by Wendy Hector, of Sacramento; tomato glazed veal chops with roasted garlic and sage spatezle, by Michaela Rosenthal, of Woodland Hills; and garlic infused tilapia, beet, parsnip and sweet potato stacks with watercress aioli, by Emily Falke, of Santa Barbara. She plated up her dish using a hollow round metal container to keep all the layers separated.
“It’s so fun to divide the colors and press them together,” she said, of her layered dish.
At the end of the cooking and plating, the judges announced their verdict. Brown-Miller’s stacked steak Napoleons claimed the first prize. She won $1,000 and the coveted title.
First-time Cook-Off participant, Falke placed second, for her tilapia and sweet potato stacks while Thurman took third for his spicy tuna towers.
For those who didn’t get enough garlic food over the weekend, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association has collected the recipes, along with dishes from the judges and Gourmet Alley chefs into a book, available for $7. Garlic fans can also try out the winning recipe from last year.
2010 first place
Warm weather watermelon crabmeat kissed South Seas soup
By contestant Margee Berry, Trout Lake, Wash.
Serves: 6
5 c. cubed small seedless watermelon, rind removed
1 tbsp. mild olive oil
¼ c. chopped shallots
2 tsp. minced peeled ginger
2 tsp. minced trimmed fresh lemongrass*
1 tsp. minced Thai chili or other hot chili, such as Serrano
1 tbsp. minced Gilroy grown garlic
1 c. fresh squeezed blood orange juice
2 tsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. fish sauce
½ tsp. sea salt
Crabmeat topping:
2 c. cooked lump crabmeat
1/4 c. finely chopped green onion
3 tbsp. chopped cilantro
2 tbsp. chopped fresh mint
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
4 tbsp. grated radish
In a blender puree the watermelon then transfer to a large bowl, set aside.
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and add the shallots, ginger, lemongrass and chili; saute 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute more. Transfer to blender along with orange juice, vinegar, fish sauce and salt; puree until smooth. Stir into watermelon mixture then strain and press through fine sieve into another bowl, discarding solids. Chill soup at least for 1 hour to blend flavors (soup can be served either at room temperature or slightly chilled). To serve ladle soup into bowls then top with crabmeat topping in the center.
In a medium bowl toss together crabmeat, green onion, cilantro, mint and lime juice. To serve, mound crabmeat mixture in center of soup then garnish top of crabmeat with the grated radish.
*Note: Trim root end off fresh lemongrass stalk, then remove 2 outer leaves. Finely mince with either a micro plane zester or knife. Ginger and garlic can also be minced on micro plane.
