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Tuesday, April 5, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Going all in on
GARLIC
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Not too long ago, few Americans ate garlic.
It had too strong a taste;
it was too sharp. It made
your breath smell bad.
There is a reason that it was
associated with keeping
away vampires — the flavor
and aroma were too intense,
even for them.
If consumed at all, garlic
would only be eaten in
Italian food, and only in
small amounts.
That was how we
thought at least through the
1960s. But now, we love the
stuff. On average, Ameri-
cans now eat more than two
pounds of garlic each year,
according to the Garlic Seed
Foundation.
So I thought I would
make several dishes that
make the most out of garlic.
I wanted the garlic flavor to
be at the front and center of
each dish, but I did not want
it to be too strong, too pun-
gent. I wanted the garlicki-
ness to be redolent, but rela-
tively mild.
Nothing offensive here.
Just garlic that is smooth
and mellow.
There are a couple of
ways to achieve this result,
both of which I used in all
seven of my recipes.
The first is to leave the
cloves whole. Most people
mince or chop their garlic,
exposing more surface area.
That makes the flavor more
acute and concentrated.
In Italy, where they know
something about garlic, the
cloves are left whole so that
the flavor is noticeable but
not overpowering.
The other trick is to cook
it at a relatively low tem-
perature for a relatively long
time. That way, the flavors
get a chance to ripen and
mature until the garlic is
almost sweet.
Perhaps the purest
example of these concepts
is oven-roasted garlic. I
first had this at a wonderful
French restaurant in Chi-
cago, Bistro 110, in the late
1980s or early 1990s. It
made such an impression
on me that they happily pro-
vided the recipe, printed
nicely on an index card.
An hourlong braise in
the oven renders an entire
head’s worth of cloves
impossibly soft and spread-
able. Cooked to the point
where its natural sugars
have caramelized, the garlic
is at its best simply smeared
on a piece of baguette. If the
baguette has been buttered,
well, so much the better.
Oven-roasted garlic plays
an essential role in the next
food I made, too: garlic
vodka.
All you do is roast a head
of garlic in the oven and
then drop it in a jar with
vodka. All it takes is 12 to
24 hours, for a subtle to a
progressively stronger flavor.
I like garlic and I like
vodka, but I have to admit
that I am not a huge fan of
garlic vodka — and this is
coming from someone who
thinks horseradish vodka is
the king of alcoholic drinks.
But if you, too, like garlic
and vodka, you might want
to give it a try.
It would make a won-
derful bloody mary. And
think of how great it would
be in pasta with vodka
sauce.
If you are still wary of
using a lot of garlic in a
dish, then you have prob-
ably forgotten about chicken
with 40 cloves of garlic. It
was all the rage in the 1970s
and ‘80s.
It is indeed chicken
cooked with 40 actual
cloves of garlic, and it is
sublime. Far from being
acrid, as you would expect,
the chicken is suffused with
a warm, garlicky glow. But
not too garlicky. The garlic
does not even compete with
the chicken; it only serves to
enhance it.
If you have never had
chicken with 40 cloves of
garlic, I cannot recommend
it enough. It may become
your favorite way of pre-
paring chicken.
And if the thought of 40
cloves scares you, then feel
free to use 38 cloves. Just
tell everyone it was 40.
No such deception is
needed with the garlic bread
I made. I used my Italian
wife’s recipe.
Her garlic bread begins
with an equal combina-
tion of butter and olive oil,
the way her mother made
it. Into the mixture goes a
couple of whole cloves of
garlic — never minced or
crushed in a garlic press,
she warns. For this garlic
bread, the subtlety of the
garlic is key.
She does not touch her
garlic beyond peeling it
to make hers, but I made
mine just a little stronger by
crushing my cloves before
adding them to the butter
and olive oil. Either way
is fine, but frankly I think
I might like her slightly
milder version better.
Subtlety was never on
my mind before when I
made stir-fried spinach
with garlic, which I first
had 25 years ago at the City
Lights of China restaurant
in Washington, D.C. I recall
it being the sort of dish
that left you smelling like
garlic four days after you
ate it, and I gleefully made
it that same way in my own
kitchen ever since.
But that’s not the effect
I was going for this time.
Instead of essentially
making the spinach a back-
drop for the garlic, this time
I left the cloves whole and
allowed the garlic to flavor
the spinach.
I like the old, gar-
licky way just fine, but I
like this more understated
dish better.
Colter Peterson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Oven-Roasted Garlic.
For an unexpected dish,
I made fresh thyme and
garlic soup. It was particu-
larly easy to make, the sort
of soup that you could easily
whip up on a weeknight and
serve either as a first course
or as an entrée, if paired
with something else such
as cheese and bread. It is
too thin to stand alone as an
entrée.
It is unexpectedly good,
because it is so easy to
make. All you do is simmer
garlic cloves in chicken (or
vegetable) stock and sprigs
of fresh thyme. When the
garlic is soft, you remove
the thyme and puree the
garlic and stock. A healthy
splash of lemon juice gives
it just the right acidic coun-
terpoint. A slice of stale —
or toasted — bread on the
bottom of the dish provides
a foundation on which the
other flavors are built.
Finally, I made a shrimp
and garlic sauce — not the
familiar Chinese dish but
a version that would be
more at home in Italy or
Provence.
The dish comes together
quickly, as it usually does
when shrimp is involved,
and it is unusually satis-
fying. It isn’t just the shrimp
and it isn’t even the garlic.
The way the shrimp and
garlic come together with
lemon juice, dry sherry and
olive oil is quite a marvel.
It is the stuff that culi-
nary dreams are made of.
CHICKEN WITH
40 CLOVES OF
GARLIC
Yield: 4 servings
40 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
8 (5 to 7-ounce) bone-in,
skin-on chicken thighs or
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken
breasts halved crosswise
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup dry sherry
3 / 4 cup chicken broth
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved
in 1 tablespoon water
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Note: To peel many cloves of garlic
at once, break garlic heads into
cloves and place in a zipper-
lock bag. Squeeze out air, seal
bag and gently pound garlic
with a rolling pin. Remove
peeled cloves from bag.
1. Adjust oven rack to up-
per-middle position and preheat
to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss
garlic in a microwavable bowl
with 1 teaspoon oil and sugar.
Microwave garlic until slightly
softened with light brown
spotting, about 4 minutes, stirring
halfway through.
2. Pat chicken dry with paper
towels and sprinkle with salt
and pepper. Heat remaining 1
teaspoon oil in 12-inch oven-safe
skillet over medium-high heat
until just smoking. Cook chicken
skin-side down until browned, 7
to 10 minutes. Transfer to plate,
skin-side up. Pour off all but 1
tablespoon of fat from skillet.
Reduce heat to medium low,
add garlic, and cook until evenly
browned, about 1 minute.
3. Off heat, add sherry to skillet.
Return skillet to medium heat and
bring sherry to simmer, scraping
up any browned bits. Cook until
sherry coats garlic and pan is
nearly dry, about 4 minutes. Stir
in broth, cream, the cornstarch
mixture, thyme sprigs and bay
leaf, and simmer until slightly
thickened, about 3 minutes. Re-
turn chicken skin-side up to skillet
along with any accumulated
juices. Transfer skillet to oven and
roast until chicken registers 175
degrees, 18 to 22 minutes (15 to
20 minutes if cooking breasts).
4. Using pot holder (skillet
handle will be hot), remove skillet
from oven. Transfer chicken and
half of garlic to serving platter.
Discard thyme and bay leaf. Using
potato masher, mash remaining
garlic into sauce and season with
salt and pepper to taste. Pour
half of sauce around chicken.
Serve, passing remaining sauce
separately.
Per serving: 580 calories; 40
g fat; 14 g saturated fat; 207 mg
cholesterol; 35 g protein; 17 g
carbohydrate; 4 g sugar; 1 g fiber;
820 mg sodium; 83 mg calcium
— Recipe from “The Chicken
Bible” by America’s Test Kitchen
See, Garlic/Page B2
When one building Fond memories of the ‘Stump Patch’
is better than two
DOROTHY
FLESHMAN
GINNY
MAMMEN
OUT AND ABOUT
As in most of downtown
La Grande, Adams Avenue
was once lined with frame
buildings that were destroyed
by fire or razed in order to
build larger, more permanent
structures. It was the same for
the northside 1300 block.
The space at 1307, how-
ever, was an empty lot on
the 1888 Sanborn Map, but a
small frame building housing
a millinery shop was located
at 1309 at that time. In the
late 1880s or 1890s another
one-story nondescript frame
building was constructed
at 1307.
These two small shops
were popular and had several
businesses that remained for a
number of years.
One of the earliest occu-
pants of 1307 Adams was
the Model Restaurant owned
by Mrs. Hiltz. In January
1902 she put her restaurant
up for sale. A young man by
the name of James Arbuckle,
who had been operating a
tobacco and confectionary
shop, saw a new opportu-
nity. He sold his cigar store
to John Fredrick Steinbeck,
found a partner in a man by
the name of Joseph Squires,
a Civil War veteran who had
previously been in the livery
business, and together they
purchased The Model all
within the month of January.
The partnership between
the two men dissolved in
July 1903 because Squires
was retiring due to illness.
Arbuckle was now the sole
owner of The Model. Squires
moved to Spokane, Wash-
ington, where, according to
his obituary died that same
year at the age of 56.
Twenty years later, in 1923,
James Arbuckle and his wife,
Katie, sold both the restaurant
and their home and moved to
Portland. The restaurant, once
a solid business, was on shaky
ground for the next few years.
The new owner renamed the
restaurant Norris Grill. By
May of 1924 it had been sold
again and became the Oregon
Trail Cafe until August of that
year when Grace Shannon
became the new owner. She
did a complete remodeling
and redecorating and changed
the name to Old Oregon Trail
Cafe, but by July of 1925 the
cafe closed its doors.
See, Mammen/Page B6
DORY’S DIARY
I
n the Observer/Herald Sec-
tion B on Saturday, Mar. 26,
2022, Jayson Jacoby of the
Baker City Herald wrote an appre-
ciated article on “The Story of the
Stumps” in Baker County which
brought back memories to a local
resident of such a place in Union
County.
It was called “Stump Patch” and
I’m the local resident.
The Stump Patch was located
somewhere out west of La Grande
along the highway, possibly near
Perry because at one time there was
a sawmill there. I would imagine
that the nearby grove of huge ever-
green trees would have been har-
vested because of their proximity
to the mill along the Grande Ronde
River and the railroad tracks.
There were huge high stumps
left from the felling of selected
trees which, with the shading of
the high tree limbs providing an
umbrella covering, the area was a
wonderful place in which to hold
picnics, for it was cool on a hot
summer’s day with parking close
by along the highway.
I was a small child when I
remember the Stump Patch. By
the time I was grown, I’m sure the
patch had been cleared away for
the many changes brought about
with the new highway that was
constantly being rerouted through
the canyon.
There was the place where
people stopped to see the dancing
bear, captured and on the end of a
chain. The swimming pool of cold
river water, the picnic grounds, the
cabins for rent near the yellow and
blue Richfield statue with the lion
lying at the foot of the advertising
sign. There were other things, too,
like the weigh station and such, but
this is about the Stump Patch.
My relative families were many
and close-knit. They loved being
together and sharing time camping,
fishing, picnicking together.
One time we had gone to the
Stump Patch and enjoyed the cool-
ness as the trees swayed gently
above us and the elders visited
while the children played among
the stumps that were about as tall
as ourselves. I was probably about
eight or 10 years of age and enjoyed
running around between the high
stumps or climbing on them along
with my cousins.
This one time that stays so viv-
idly in my mind is the one hot
summer’s day that the elder folks
decided to picnic at the Stump
Patch. We all piled into cars with
picnic lunch offerings and headed
out to the Patch. Once there, the
salads and breads were spread out
for all to fill their plates and for
the children to find a place, on or
near a stump, to put their plate
when the fried chicken fresh and
hot from the family frying pans
was passed around. I can’t recall
whether or not there were wooden
picnic tables with attached board
slabs for seats for the elders but
there may have been.
Anyway, the fragrance of the
chicken wafted through the forest
to everyone’s breathing deeply
and anticipating its dispersal.
It came, but not the way we had
expected.
Along with the chicken came
swarms of yellowjackets just as
intent on having chicken dinner as
were we.
You can see the picture in your
mind with the streams of folks
running out of the Stump Patch
with their plate of chicken, salads,
and breads held high to escape to
their cars for protection from the
stinging insects.
I don’t recall where we gath-
ered in the home of one or another
to finish the meal but neither do
I remember another picnic in the
grove where the stumps were still
young enough to weep pitch.
The remembrance of the Stump
Patch is still clear and vivid with
a special heartfelt link to the past
for the beauty and almost ethereal
feeling while within the arms of its
shade and coolness away from the
heat of the day, beyond that of the
failed chicken dinner.
I have thought of the forest and
its stumps so many times along with
wishing I could remember exactly
where everything had been located
along the changing highway so
close to my hometown, the loss of
more history such a few years ago.