Garlic can be a good seasoning for many stew recipes. However, too much of it can ruin a dish as it can overpower every other ingredient used.
This has been evident with South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s cooking. Mboweni loves showing off his cooking skills, but is at most times teased about the amount of garlic he uses in his food.
Last week, he shared a picture of a clean plate just after he finished eating the beef stew that he cooked, saying it was not what he expected.
“Dinner is Done and Dusted . ( DDD). Was not as I expected. It was below PAR! Maybe chicken tomorrow. Ok. Thank you. Bye,” he wrote.
Dinner is Done and Dusted . ( DDD). Was not as I expected. It was below PAR! Maybe chicken tomorrow. Ok. Thank you. Bye. pic.twitter.com/b6e7L1eJVN
— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) February 1, 2020
Twitter users were quick to comment saying it is because of the amount of garlic that he used. Hence the dish not reaching his expectations.
What did you expect? You put 3KGs of garlic in one pot.
— Phumzile Maldaka (@Maldaka) February 2, 2020
😂😂😂you had Garlic while preparing the meal and I mean a lot of it now you have garlic salt?? And consistently having that mustard
— Aobakwe Bruce (@MasterBruce_A) February 1, 2020
It’s the garlic- it doesn’t look like it was cooked.
— Coceka Mfundisi (@Cmfundisi) February 1, 2020
Since the minister loves garlic in his food, here’s how he can fix too much garlic in a dish.
According to Cookingchew, there are certainly numerous ways in which one can fix too much garlic and below are different means and methods you can apply to do so.
Adding onion, a concentrated flavour, to the dish
For this particular method what you will be playing with is the balance of flavours. You see, the first and foremost problem with too much garlic is that it makes the dish too overwhelming and too overpowering.
To do this, you may opt to add onion which is a concentrated flavour just like garlic to balance your dish. In addition to this, onion is a very good complement to garlic which enables onion to cover up the overpowering elements of garlic.
Diluting your content of garlic
This is, perhaps, the easiest option and way you can take. All you have to do is dilute the dish you are making. To do exactly this, you simply just have to create another round of the dish you are making and then add it to the current batch you have already which has a lot of garlic or garlic powder. This will easily dilute your dish.
Throwing into the mix some aromatic herbs
Aside from onion, you may also use some aromatic herbs to balance out the flavor of your dish and achieve that taste you are looking for. Some of these aromatic herbs you may opt to use include cilantro, basil as well as parsley. All of these herbs will help fight the overpowering elements of garlic.
However, be sure to note that for this method, a little also goes a long way and less is still certainly more.
Too much garlic makes the dish too overwhelming and too overpowering. Picture: Supplied
Adding vinegar, lime juice, lemon or an acidic ingredient
To fix too much garlic, all you have to do is balance out your flavours. Case in point, for this method, all you have to do, once again, is to find a particular ingredient that will help you counteract the overpowering elements of garlic.
Adding a creamy substance
Last but not the least, another way to balance out your dishes is to add some creamy substance like dairy products. However, if you desire, you may also opt for creamy ingredients that are non-dairy and that includes coconut milk.
Sweetening your dish
If your dish becomes too overwhelming because of too much garlic, chances are your dish has become too bitter. To counteract this nature, all you have to do is to add some sweeteners like sugar and honey. Like most methods in this list, be sure to use it in moderation.