Basic How To: Ginger-Garlic Paste
Ginger-garlic paste is one of the most basic and essential ingredients in almost every Indian kitchen and most used in Hyderabadi cuisine. It is used in most of the non-vegetarian preparations and a few of the vegetarian dishes as well. Every kitchen in India might have container of ginger-garlic paste stored in the kitchen.
Ginger and peeled garlic pods
I usually make ginger-garlic paste in large amounts and store it in the freezer in several small plastic boxes. I keep one box in the refrigerator and store the rest in the freezer. As it finishes with daily use in cooking, I take out an another box from the freezer compartment and again store it in the refrigerator, where it thaws and is ready to be used again. This is how I prepare and store the ginger-garlic paste for my daily cooking.
I get many queries from my readers about the procedure to prepare Ginger-Garlic paste, so that gave me an idea to start a series on Basic How To’s. You can find a list of ‘How to’s’ in the category section in the left sidebar of my blog for easy access. Here goes the recipe:
Ginger-Garlic paste
Ginger garlic paste – Adrak-Lahsun ka paste
Ingredients:
(I always use Garlic and Ginger in the ratio of 2:1 in quantity)
Ginger Root – 250 gms
Garlic pods- 500 gms
Method:
1. Wash and scrape the ginger root using a spoon. Wearing gloves, or else your fingers will burn after you finish scraping the whole amount of ginger root. Cut it into chunks.
Garlic bulbs and Garlic cloves
2. Peel garlic and cut each in half if the cloves are very large.
3. Grind the ginger and garlic together, adding little or no water to help in grinding. I always prepare Ginger-Garlic paste in the Food processor, make the job a lot easier. I don’t even need to chop up garlic, or add any water. It does the job quickly and perfectly.
Garlic and ginger in the processor
4. Store in small glass freezer proof air tight food storage containers.
5. Keep one container in the refrigerator and rest in the freezer compartment.
6. As the container in the refrigerator finishes with daily use, take a container out of the freezer and store this in the refrigerator for use.
7. Continue doing this till the whole stock of boxes finishes. You can again make Ginger garlic paste and store it the same way. It comes handy in a lot of dishes from the Indian cuisine.
Garlic bulbs soaking in water for easier and quick peeling
Tip: To peel a large amount of garlic, soak as many garlic heads as you need in just luke warm water for 15-30 minutes. Drain and peel them all. The peels should come off effortlessly.
This post is my contribution to the event Back to Basics originally stated by Jaya, and currently being hosted by Aqua at Served with Love.
Luv,
Mona
