What's your favourite way to peel garlic? Chances are, either you cut the root end off and then cut the papery husk away - which can be extremely fiddly - or you crush it under the blade of a knife in a chef-y manner, which not only hurts, but results lots of finger-flicking as you try to dislodge the wispy bits of husk that stick like glue while you try to separate them from the garlic's flesh.
Here's the thing I now reach for first whenever garlic requires peeling. It's not completely perfect. If the husk is very tight round the clove, then it doesn't always separate first time and might need firm pressure, which can crush the clove. But I'd say 8 out of 10 times, it works jolly well and now I wouldn't be without it. And it's resulted in my first video demo.
If you haven't already tried videoing, it is a disturbingly good way to discover bits of your character never before suspected. The result below wasn't done in one continuous take - or rather, it was, but I've cut out the waffle - a lot of waffle. Who knew you could talk about garlic peeling for five minutes? How many cloves did I get through in my urge to show it off? (Actually, you can see that at the end - that's a ridiculous pile of unnecessary nakedness.) Already I've learned a lot - like, Shut up!
At 1 minute 27 seconds, it could still be shorter ("Wouldn't thirty seconds suffice?" queried Husband, supportively) but that would have meant reshooting and, heck, there's only so much peeled garlic you want to store in the fridge. So next time (and, yes, it was such fun, I'm sure there will be a next time), I'll be reviewing the script a little more closely before rolling the camera.
In the meantime, feel free to comment! If you have any videoing tips, I'd be glad to hear them.
...Landscape Juice Network
Recent Comments