Chef's trick 1: Rub it off
Chop off the blunt end, but not right through the skin on the other end...
You can see how it peels back with the skin expose clove. If the skin is quite dry, you can rub it loose.
Peeling off nicely...
But now we've got annoying fiddly bits to peel off. Skin wasn't dry enough. Let's use trick #2.
Chef's trick #2: the knife-side-slam
Cut off the blunt end...
Put the clove under the flat of the blade and HIT the blade firmly! The exact degree of SMACK to give it is something to constantly refine, from clove to clove - enough to loosen the skin, not so much that it's a single peel-and-garlic mash. But that's just getting fussy. It works.
Murdered garlic. It's now easy to shake the skin off the flesh.
The chopped garlic! I was chopping this lot for tapenade, so they've all been flung into the Kilner jar. You can see most of them are a bit pulverised, and the one I rubbed the skin off is whole.
