Garlic: good for what ails you

Begone, sniffles and sneezes!

Our house is infested.  For the first time ever, we have all succumbed to one of the earth's most ancient maladies: the common cold.  To battle the onset of coughing and sneezing I called upon one of the earth's most ancient medicines: garlic.  One note, I've read that it's best to chop garlic just prior to cooking to receive the most benefit from allicilin, a compound known to kill 23 types of bacteria, including salmonella and staphylococcus.  Take that!

This is quite easy to make, even when you can barely move.  My husband was fairly skeptical that I could manage any cooking in my condition and assured me that leftover chili would be wonderful, but I'd already decided that nothing but garlic would do.


Garlic Tourin
 adapted from "White Garlic Tourin, A Classic French Soup"

1 TBSP duck fat (if you don't have it, use butter/olive oil)
1/2-2/3 sweet onion, minced
1 large head garlic, roughly chopped
6 cups water (or water/chicken stock), boiling
large bunch fresh thyme
salt/pepper, to taste
1 fresh egg, separated
1/2 TBSP red wine vinegar
 optional: crusty bread, vermicelli or fine egg noodles, cheesy croutons, chopped parsley....or cheese toast


In a medium saucepan, fry the minced onion in duckfat on med-high until it begins to brown.  I actually have duckfat in my freezer, saved from last Thanksgiving.  How very French.  While the onion fries, roughly chop garlic and bring water/stock to boil.  I boiled 4 cups in my electric kettle and another cup + frozen chicken stock cubes in a small saucepan.  Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently -- be sure not to allow garlic to burn.

Add boiling stock, thyme and s&p and simmer at least 15-20 minutes.  Check after 20 minutes and adjust seasoning.  Fish out the thyme and discard.  If you are making this when well, pull the itty bitty leaves off the thyme, but hey....if you're sick don't sweat it.  I hit it with my immersion blender and let it simmer 10 more minutes. 

At this point, I realized we had no crusty bread or cheesy croutons in the house and briefly planned to top this soup with grated cheddar and parsley, but rallied enough to make two slices of cheese toast (wheat bread/cheddar cheese) while the soup was simmering.  Once the toast was out of the oven, I whisked the egg white until slightly fluffly and added slowly to the soup, whisking constantly.  You can temper it a bit if you wish, but I really did not have the energy to do this.  Cover the soup and continue to simmer about 5 more minutes.  While you do this, beat the yolk and vinegar together. Remove soup from heat and whisk in yolks -- I added a handful of fine egg noodles at this point and then covered it and let it stand for a few minutes while I chopped parsley and cheese toast.

To serve, I cut the cheese toast into cubes, placed those in the bottom of a bowl, ladled the soup over that and topped with some freshly chopped parsley.  Sadly, I was too hungry and weak to get a final shot, but it was delicious.  This made two bowls each for the two hungry adults.  Follow with a nip of medicinal whiskey and go to bed.  Sleep well!