Indian Flavouring Pastes

These basic Indian flavouring pastes take minutes to prepare and can be frozen or refrigerated to last you for weeks. Ginger- Garlic paste is a must have in the kitchen to make a professional curry without the fuss. Ginger paste and Chilli paste are both ideal for enhancing and giving added depth to your spiced dishes.

You can of course buy most of these, but they will be full of preservatives and will lack the vibrance of homemade versions. The best storage for these pastes is to freeze them in blocks. I use ice cube trays which make blocks of 2tbsp which is a handy size for most people. Once frozen the blocks can be emptied out of the trays into freezer bags and labelled. Make sure to read our post on Indian Onion Pastes to complete the picture and be ready to make some great curries.

Ginger Paste.

300g                             Peeled Root Ginger (chopped or grated)

30ml                             Water

For ease of preparation and economy choose large pieces of ginger without many knobbly bits. To get the best from these pastes wait until the shop gets a fresh delivery of roots in, the fresher the better.  Trim off any dark pieced then peel the ginger with a spoon. No, that’s not a typo, scraping the skin off the root with the edge of an old dessert spoon is the quickest, safest, and most economic way to peel ginger

Chop the roots into small pieces then pop into the food processor. Blend the water and ginger together to a smooth paste and freeze until required.

You may notice I am using water here to blend the paste rather than oil which appears in the next recipes. The reason for this is the pastes below will general be cooked in or added to a savoury dish. By using water here this paste could equally find its way into a dessert such as a steamed pudding or cake.

Ginger-Garlic Paste

100g                             Peeled Ginger Root

100g                             Peeled garlic

20-30ml                        Vegetable oil

Peel the ginger as outlined above and roughly chop. Blend the oil, ginger, and garlic together to a smooth paste and freeze until required.

The paste may also be stored in the fridge in a sealed container in the fridge by adding 1tsp lemon juice to the mix and covering the surface of the paste with a thin layer of vegetable oil.

Green Chilli Paste

10                                 Green Chillies

2tsp                            Vegetable Oil

¼ tsp                            salt                              

Trim the stem of the chillies then cut them in half long ways and remove the seeds and central core. Coarsely chop the chilli flesh then blend to a paste with the oil, salt, and water.

While we call this a ‘paste’ you will find its actually very small pieces of chilli that will disappear when used in a curry. And while we’re taking Indian cooking here this paste would be equally useful to lift a Thai dish or dip.

The best way to store the paste is to freeze it. I use a silicone ice cube tray which makes 1cm cubes so I can add the chilli to a dish in small amounts.

You can make all the above in just a couple of hours and have a bundle of flavour sitting in your freezer ready for use. I would use three months as a ‘use by guide’ to storage but I bet once you get into using these they won’t hang around that long.

Enjoy Life!

John.

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©John Webber. 2023