1. To peel garlic cloves, put clove on a board. Lay flat of a large sharp knife over clove and bash it with heel of palm. The papery skin should peel away easily.
2. If there is a green shoot in centre, remove it as it can taste bitter.
3. To finely chop garlic, thinly slice with a sharp knife, then pile up the garlic and continue to chop into small pieces. Keep piling and chopping until it’s as fine as you want it chopped.
4. After chopping, garlic can then be crushed. You can crush garlic without a garlic crusher. Add a little salt to act as an abrasive. Hold a large knife at a slight angle on board with blade facing away from you and anchor tip of blade with other hand. Using flat of blade, repeatedly make small circular movements with handle, pressing and dragging knife into pile of chopped garlic, to break it down into a paste.
5. Alternatively, crush by bashing garlic in a pestle and mortar.
Use your skills to make these triple-tested recipes:
Griddled garlic bread recipe
Parmesan and garlic risotto recipe
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Oak chopping board, Lakeland. ProChef’s knife, Zwilling J.A. Henckels. Pestle and mortar, chef's own.
The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time
