“Did you see the news about the Indian woman who gave birth to eleven babies?” Ma asked over lunch.
“In a single delivery?”
“Of course! That belly on her — incredible.”
“And where,” I said, “did you get this story from?”
“You don’t know? It’s all over Facebook!”
“Actually, it’s Jessy Mendiola they killed in my news feed today.”
“Who’s that?”
“Exactly. Some actress, I think.”
Jessy Mendiola is obviously very much alive. “Some fans have expressed anger at the fake report, saying it was reckless, distressing and hurtful,” so says here. I’m distressed, too — at their credulity. Here I propose that FB change the name of its feed from “news” (cold and misleading) to “chika” (properly, appealingly ambiguous). As for the hoax about the undecaplets, Snopes says the story has been around since early 2012, and that later variations showing the expectant “mother” featured an unrelated picture of a Mexican woman with a 132-lb tumor in her abdomen — an incredible sight indeed.
And that, folks, was the highlight of my day — if roasting garlic is not your idea of exciting, that is, and why should it? Basically it involves waiting at least 30 minutes for them to soften up and brown in the oven, which is like watching paint dry, if more pleasant to the nose.
Well, there’s a faster (though not necessarily better) way. If you have tried microwaving garlic for 15 seconds to make it easy to peel — it really works, by the way — you would have noticed it also renders the flesh soft. It saves you time if aiming for mashed garlic, and since that is where we are mostly headed with roasted garlic anyway, the only other step is to roast!
Actually, I microwaved the whole head in two 15-second bursts because it did not feel soft enough. Using tongs (that thing’s hot, remember), I grilled it stove-top over low open flame. Took less than two minutes for it to char all over. After letting rest for a few minutes, it was a breeze squeezing the cooked cloves out of their skins. Mushed with olive oil and some salt, I had smoky garlic paste in record time.
Like I said, slow-roasting still gives best results. But if you simply intend to use the garlic as a flavor base, as in pizza or some other bread, my shortcut accomplishes the job just as well. Let no one call you lazy for doing so. You got it from the Internet, so insist on calling it by proper designation: a hack. Don’t you love setting people straight?
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