When you want a dish to have quintessential garlic flavor that permeates each bite, mince it. You can mince with a knife, or a garlic press.
Either way, you need to free the individual cloves. To do that, press down on the head with the heel of your palm. Apply firm, even pressure so the cloves don't fly all over the place.
To peel an individual clove, cut of the hard stem end where the clove attached to the bulb. Either stop the cut just short of the skin on the other side and peel the skin around to remove it, or make the cut all the way through and squeeze out the clove. The older the clove, the easier the skin releases.
You can also peel it by setting the side of your knife blade on the clove and pressing down until you feel the skin release, though not hard enough to pulverize it, or the skin will get mixed in with the garlic.
To mince with a knife, smash the peeled clove with the side of the knife. Then just run your knife back and forth across the smashed clove, chopping as you go until it's as fine as you like.
If you don't want individual little pieces of garlic and have a press, just put the whole peeled clove (or cloves, if you can fit them) in the press and squeeze. Use your knife to trim away any clinging garlic.
How to cut eggplant into slices
How to cut eggplant into slices
For most dishes, eggplant needs to be sliced before it's cooked. There are two basic cuts - rounds, which are great for almost every dish, and planks, which work particularly well for layered dishes like moussaka or vegetable lasagnas.
When choosing eggplants, reach for the smallest ones you can find. Their flesh is usually more tender and less fibrous than the older, larger ones.
Round slices are the most basic cut. They're great for grilling, broiling, and traditional dishes like eggplant parmesan. Remember that eggplant loses moisture and shrinks when cooked. To compensate, cut the raw eggplant into pieces about twice as large as you want the cooked pieces to be.
Lengthwise slices are good for grilling and layered dishes where you want the eggplant to have the most surface area. To make them, first stand the eggplant upright on its end and slice away a section of the peel. This isn't a must, but it gives the end slices more fleshy surface area to take on color and flavor when cooked.
Then just slice down the length of the eggplant to make slices as thick or thin as you like. You can slice away a section of skin on the other side of the eggplant when you're finished slicing.
Related Article: Do I need to salt eggplant before cooking? (Cookthink)
Related Article: How to cube an eggplant (Cookthink)
Video: How to make eggplant salad (Handmade Kitchen)
