Crispy garilc in oil, kra teem jeew. A secret that need to be told.

In my last post I was talking about what I call "A jewel for Thai soup." I put in my Jok. It's called Kra Teem Jeew which is simply Crispy garlic in oil. Kra Teem means Garlic. We use this nutty smell, golden crispy garlic in oil, yes I said nutty smell, to bring the food to another level of taste and delicious smell. It really makes a different when you put these in.



It's basically kind of garlic infused with oil, but the difference is it is infused with high temperature oil - high enough to make garlic get golden and crispy.
We put it into the dish that have "almost" plain smell or very light in taste, for example clear soup(Kang Jed type), Jok, noodle and many more to complete Umami, if I can say. My kitchen never be with out it. It's SOO easy to make, but a little trick need to be told since garlic get burn easily once the oil get very hot...don't you blink.



Garlic in your hand?
- 1 big head of garlic
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- tiny pinch of salt



1. With a garlic press, press all garlic cloves.
2. Put pressed garlic into a small sauce pan, in goes the vegetable oil and salt.
3. Bring the pan to low heat, let the garlic and oil heat up together, stir often as they start to heat up, so there will be no lump of garlic stick at the bottom of the pan.

NOW DO NOT BLINK

4. turn off the heat as soon as you see the color of the garlic starts to change to light golden then let them continue cooking in the hot oil with out the heat. If you let them bubbling in the pan with the heat still on till they turn golden right in the pan , it's too late - you will end up with burning garlic and a nasty, bitter garlic in oil.



let them cool down and pour them into clean little jar. I always clean and save up those little artichoke hearts jars after I finish them. These garlic in oil can be kept up to a month. Now you've got a jewel of Thai cooking - a little secret that need to be told.