Viola!

I was strolling through our neighborhood health food store the other day and spotted — holy shit I couldn’t believe it — immature green garlic. VIOLA! As my good friend and former biz partner Patty Mac likes to say as a tongue-in-cheek americanization of the French BEHOLD (and btw, a very happy birthday Patoo). Like a few other items — bocherones, for example — I keep an eye out for things I know will be around for the blink of an eye.

These long stem, bulbed garlic things appear only for a very short time during the growing season. I don’t know what other folks do with these, but I immediately snagged a bunch and made a beeline for our soul food kitchen — where I proceeded to make green garlic bisque. Fuck. The aroma alone was incredible.

Admittedly, I fucked up the dish a bit by using a vegan stock I had on hand infused by stock I had used to make cajun boiled peanuts. So the bisque was, to say the least, a bit on the salty side. Still, pretty fucking amazing.

For those of you who have never seen immature green garlic — and I would assume that would be most everyone — it looks like a gigantic bunch of scallions with a leek-looking bulb at the bottom. In fact, were it not for the profusion of green stalks, you might easily confuse it with a leek. But the smell when you sautee them is pure garlic essence in all its glory.

To tell you the truth, I am headed back to the organic health food store tomorrow to buy some more — assuming they are still available. I’m not even sure there’s a market for this green garlic bisque here in Tel Aviv. You know what? Who cares. Sometimes you just cook for your own private Idaho.