Fried Garlic

Ingredients
Garlic
Olive Oil

Special Equipment
Garlic Press

Motivation
There was this Italian restaurant in Lafayette, Indiana called Spageddies.  It was very similar to Olive Garden, but I liked it better.  When you sat down at a table they would give you bread and this little white ceramic dish filled with toasted garlic bits and spices.  The idea was that you were to add olive oil to the dish and use it to dip the bread in.  I loved it, especially because of the little toasted bits of garlic. I would hunt down every single one of the garlic bits and clean that dish out.  This "recipe" is really just a technique you can use to make your own garlic bits to add to dishes.  I like to use them as garnish on the top of soups, salads, meat, even in olive oil (like god intended).

Mise en Place
Break a bunch of cloves of garlic off a bulb and peal the paper off of them.  I used a rubber tube that is "specially designed" to peal garlic that a friend of mine recommended.  It works really well.  Alton Brown would call it a uni-tasker, and he'd be right.  While it's true that there are lots of ways to peal garlic, this is way I currently do it because it doesn't get my hands sticky.

Method
Pour a couple of splashes of olive oil into the bottom of a small skillet (I use a non-stick one, I don't if that matters or not though).   You don't have to cover the entire bottom of the skillet, you just need enough to coat the garlic bits.

I used a garlic press and press the garlic right into the olive oil puddle in the pan.  I expect that you could probably mince your garlic by hand or some other means and that would work just as well.  Once all the garlic bits are in the pan, stir them up a bit so the olive oil with coat them.

Turn the heat on to medium.  After about 2-3 minutes you'll start hear the moister in the garlic begin to sizzle and you'll smell it starting to toast.  This will smell amazing.  If there are hungry folks milling about you might want to have a snack ready to fend them off.  Once it starts to toast I usually back the heat off to medium low to make sure I don't go past toasting and straight into burning.

Stir the bits occasionally to be sure to toast all sides.   At some point your bits will start to clump together.   Don't worry about it, that's natural a means you're almost done.  I usually try to break the larger clumps apart with the spatula to get more garlic in contact with the bottom of the skillet.   Any clumps that you can't break apart you'll take care of later.

Once your garlic bits are golden brown transfer from skillet to a waiting dish.  After they are cool break apart any remaining clumps.