Garlic Spread (Toum)
At Goood Frickin’ Chicken in San Francisco, they provided an addictive garlic spread (called Toum) along with their addictive grilled chicken. The plan was to slather it on everything: pita, chicken, your fingers. Our version is just as good though a little less firm (it’s the consistency of mayonnaise as you would expect from an oil/acid emulsion); they may have used guar gum or another thickener. In any case, the taste is not affected. This recipe makes a little more than a cup which should be enough to last through your chicken dinner with some left over for the next day.
Ingredients:
14 c peeled garlic cloves
3/4 t kosher salt
1 c oil (olive or peanut preferred)
2 T lemon juice
Serving suggestion: Toum with Good Frickin’ Chicken.
Method: grind the garlic cloves with the salt in a mini-chop to a paste consistency. Add lemon juice, then add oil in several batches, mixing each time, till all oil is absorbed. Continue mixing till sauce thickens to the consistency of mayonnaise. Toum garlic spread leftovers will keep, covered, for a few days in the fridge.
A pizza forum member makes a pizza with this as a topping. It looks really good, but I haven’t tried to make a version of it yet. He uses toum as the sauce and tops it with sautéed spinach and onion.
I think that would work really well. Of course, you’d want to use olive oil as the base.