delicious garlic problem

The other day we were at the co-op, and we really needed garlic. It was critical. But all they had was elephant garlic. I knew nothing about it except it's supposed to be milder. And of course it's big.

So we bought it reluctantly. I love garlic and have no need for mildness. But it was all they had.

So I used some in the tofu scramble I made for lunch yesterday, and it was very good--I had no complaints.

Then for dinner Erik wanted red lentil dal, and I was open to that, so I made some dal using the elephant garlic thinking it would not be as good as usual but no big deal. The dal calls for 8 cloves of garlic, so that's a lot of garlic. I used two huge cloves of elephant garlic cut up so they would fit in my press.

OH MY GOD! It's the best dal I have ever tasted in my entire life! It was like some magical food I wanted to eat more and more of. And I'm pretty sure its extraordinary excellence is due to the elephant garlic. It seems to have a subtle sweetness and great depth of flavor and delicious richness.

So now I think I'm addicted to elephant garlic.