Ginger and garlic paste

Many Indian recipes call for "ginger and garlic paste" -  a blend of ginger and garlic which can be kept in the fridge in order to remove the need for crushing/grating with each recipe.   While my mum uses the paste regularly, I took the decision to keep things simple by using the raw ingredients for the recipes on this blog.   Personally I'm quickly put off recipe books that use pastes that must be made in bulk; fine if I'm going to be cooking from the book on a weekly basis but otherwise just annoying and wasteful.  

That said, there may be some of you who are cooking Indian food regularly and could save a small amount of time and washing up if you had a jar of ginger and garlic paste in the fridge.    The recipe below produces a paste that is much fresher tasting than the shop-bought variety and quick and easy to make.

Conversion
I will continue to use fresh ginger and garlic in all of my recipes but if you do decide to make this paste you can easily substitute.  Generally 1/2  teaspoon equates to 1 clove of garlic and 3 grams of ginger.  Don't worry too much about getting an exact conversion - as long as you aren't too heavy handed you should obtain a good flavour in your curry. 

The paste should keep for up to 1 month in the fridge.


Ingredients

• 20 grams ginger - peeled
• 1 bulb garlic - peeled
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon light tasting vegetable oil

Method

1. Place all of the ingredients in a small blender.
2. Blend until you obtain a smooth paste.
3. Place in a clean, dry jar and store in the fridge.
4. Use in any recipe calling for ginger-garlic paste.