After you give that quick smash to your fresh garlic clove, you'll find that the fresh garlic clove skins virtually peel themselves. The fresh garlic will just slide right out of the garlic peels giving you some lightly smashed garlic and a pile of peels. The light smashing of the garlic gives you a head start on further preparation, whether it is mashing it, juicing it, mincing it, or otherwise chopping the garlic up into bits!
Fresh Garlic Cloves after Smash and Peel
Finally, cut off the very ends of the fresh garlic cloves where they were rooted into the main garlic bulb to get rid of the little bit of unsightly brown dried out ends. If there are any sprouts (you can see a bit of one in the photo), you can root them out of the fresh garlic cloves at this juncture.