Low-effort yet luxurious, garlic confit (garlic stewed in fat — in this case, olive oil) is my favorite sort of edible gift. In addition to its ease of preparation, it's also a welcome respite from the deluge of holiday sweets — though I'm certainly not denouncing fudge, truffles, or holiday cookies. To top it off, garlic confit is the gift that keeps on giving, thanks to its highly adaptable nature.
Creamy and mellow, garlic confit shines wherever one might use roasted garlic. Try mashing it into butter (or the garlic oil it's packed in) and spreading it on a crusty baguette for extra-special garlic bread, add it to compound butter to top sizzling steak, whip it into mashed potatoes, blitz it with its oil for a pungent salad dressing, or tuck the cloves under the skin of roasted chicken. Its uses are near infinitesimal.
