Fried Garlic (蒜蓉酥) is an amazing ingredients for soups, salad, meatballs and meat filling. It is extremely popular in Southern China and also known as Toi Phi in Vietnamese cuisine.

I made this because I am going to make Teochew beef balls, in which, fried garlic is an important key for the flavors. In addition to crispy and aromatic fried garlic, you can also get garlic infused oil that can be further used into salad or stir fries.

In the previous garlic sauce, lower oil temperature is used in order to extract garlic aroma and make the particles soft. However in this version, garlic particles need to be crispy. So higher oil temperature is adopted in the very beginning. Although similar method and ingredients are used, temperature changes the final texture and flavors a lot.

Instructions

Peel the garlic and then chop into similar pieces. Keep large particles.

Heat oil until hot until there are fine bubbles around chopstick. Place the garlic in. Keep stirring to avoid sticking to bottom in the first 2 mins.

Fry over middle fire until the garlic becomes slightly golden brown. Strain the oil.

Place in air-tight container.