5/4/05 | Garlic Bread
[ Currently Eating: Garlic Bread ]

Garlic bread is a huge favorite to make. In the past, I’ve had some mixed results with different methods until I stumbled upon a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for garlic bread. That set me straight in several respects, and I can turn out some pretty good ones usually and fairly cheaply as well. The two most important things are oven heat and roasting the garlic first!
Garlic Bread
1/2 loaf french bread (1/2 of $1.19 large loaf) — $0.60
8 medium cloves garlic (about 1 head) — $0.33
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Butter (2 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.26
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Kosher Salt / pepper — negligibleTotal: $1.36
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Yes, that’s right 500 degrees. You need blastingly high heat to make it, otherwise the tops will be soggy.
Mince up parsley and set aside. Cut up the butter in small bowl and allow to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, separate head of garlic into cloves, no need to peel the papery skins off! Toast them in small skillet, shaking pan frequently about 8-10 minutes on low heat, or until small burnt marks appear on outside.
Allow to cool, then peel and mince finely. Add to butter, and add in Parmesan cheese, about 1/4 tsp of pepper and about 1/8 tsp (or less) of kosher salt. (You may not need the salt at all, because Parm cheese is salty). Mix well. You should have a paste, but the butter should still be semi-solid.
Cut bread in half (or, you can use the whole loaf, just double the rest of the ingredients). Now slice the bread down the center so you have a top and bottom half. Spread garlic butter mixture on top of both sides. Place on cookie sheet and bake in oven for 10-12 minutes. Cut the bread crosswise with a sharp knife into finger food sized pieces. Sprinkle parsley on top.

I find there’s a lot of uses for canned cream of mushroom soup, the majority of which are casseroles. So I try to keep a few cans around all the time. Actually, the key is to buy ‘em in bulk (6 for $3?) at CostCo once again because as the bottom of this particular can I’m looking at says, it will last until MARCH 2007. That’s 2 years! Cheap Eats pantry heaven. Plus you can get your Andy Warhol fix having all those soup cans lined up…
I hesitate to call this a true Oyster Poorboy because the oysters aren’t deep fried or rolled in cornmeal or any of that other stuff. Plus I make it using oysters from a can. It’s more like an oyster sandwich. I find that it tastes really good though, and I can do with the flour-only coating. Depending on where you live, you are probably able to get oysters that are better tasting, fresher, and cheaper, but for me the can is the only easy way to go. I think they may come in jar too. By the way, oysters are a pretty much self-sustainable, non-polluting form of aqua-culture. I believe it’s one of the few like that. So you can eat your oyster sandwich and feel good about the environment… well, maybe.



