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Gentle readers, this is a cautionary tale…

I spotted some unusual garlic at Trader Joe’s the other day. I think it was called “Whole Cloves of Elephant Garlicâ€? or something like that…

It was packaged in an irresistibly adorable fashion. Six round and purple cloves were nestled in a cute wicker tray (that I just have to find a use for afterwards – any suggestions?)
It was covered in a white mesh bag with a mauve label draped across its middle (from memory), indicating it was a Trader Joe’s product.

Monster garlic – wow!

That night I slow baked (10 mins at 400 degrees, then 20 mins per lb at 325 degrees) a de-boned leg of lamb (also from TJs). Our home came with two ovens in our kitchen, which is so convenient in a case like this; in the other oven I had the potatoes roasting at 400 degrees.

Now, previously I have just thrown in, along with my potatoes, whole cloves of garlic; unpeeled and separated from the head. The heat causes the skins to split and slough off easily. The less prep work I have, the better.

So, I threw in three of my elephant garlic cloves and drizzled them, and the halved potatoes, with a bit of olive oil and salt.

About 20 or so minutes later, I peeked.

Disaster! One of the monster cloves had exploded. There were bits of garlic innards all over the inside of my oven, baking away at 400 degrees into nasty, crusty bits. Ugh!

I guess the skins of the garlic were too thick and tough to gently split of their own accord.

BIG MISTAKE in not inserting my knife through the skins, but I just wasn’t expecting it to go that way…

I suppose I am not alone here, but the thing I dislike the most about a mishap is having to clean it up afterwards.

Needless to say I was not happy.

I pulled out the pan and tried to avert further disaster by puncturing the other cloves. I stood side on and as far away as possible, reaching out with my knife and hoping for the best.
The first one was fine. My sharp paring knife made a few slits in the skin.

Then, the second the tip of my knife met the other time bomb – yep, that’s right KA-BOOM!

Garlic everywhere.
All over the clean clothes I’d just put on (I showered mid-prep). All through my hair. All over my face. All over my kitchen! EVERYWHERE!

Luckily the stuff did not scald, burn or scar me. It actually wasn’t as hot as you’d expect.

Final note – the damn stuff turned to mush and I didn’t even eat any of them.
The bits of garlic mush I did taste were surprisingly weak in flavour and off-putting in texture.
Needless to say, I don’t think baking these guys is advisable.

So, gentle readers, have you had better experiences with this novel form of garlic?
Can you recommend any methods or recipes for my three remaining cloves?

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.