A must have time saver for every kitchen, no need to peel garlic and ginger daily, make and store this paste so that its ready for quick use everyday!
If you intend to cook Asian or Italian foods frequently, Adu Lasen Paste (adrak lasen) is a huge time saver if made in bulk and available for daily use. Adu / Adrak is ginger and lasen is garlic. Ginger and garlic is used in most Indian savory dishes. It takes time to peel garlic and ginger, not mention your hands will have a strong smell for days afterwards. Rather than dealing with peeling garlic and ginger everyday only to use a small amount, it’s a great time saver to make this paste and store in the fridge so that its ready for use everyday. Not only does it save you time and eliminate one step from your daily cooking, it also eliminates the need of keeping fresh ginger and garlic in your pantry.
We all know the health benefits of ginger and garlic. It also gives a depth of flavor to foods. Commonly used in many cuisines around the world like Asian, Italian, Indian and Mexican. Ginger also works as a great natural tenderizer for meats, and thus commonly used in marinades especially when grilling meats. This also helps in digestion of tougher meats. Rather than having supplement pills, its very easy to use ginger and garlic in your daily cooking to add a healthy component to your diet.
This paste also freezes very well, so make it in bulk and store in smaller containers. Pull out one at a time and store in fridge. Most of my recipes will require this ingredient. Rarely some dishes require only 1 or the other. The key is the proportion, typically (1:2) ginger 1 to garlic 2. The trick to making it last longer is to use oil and white vinegar. You can also add green chili’s if you like. This will eliminate adding fresh chilis to each of your dishes everyday.
Makes 2 cups worth
Time: 5 mins
Level of difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
- 1 cup peeled garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup fresh peeled ginger (cut into smaller pieces to make blending easier)
- 1/8 cup white vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 or 2 green chopped chilis (optional)
- 1/8 cup of oil
Method:
- Using a blender, blend together all ingredients till a smooth paste consistency.
- Put in small portion air tight sealed containers. Put 1 in fridge for daily use, put the rest in freezer.
- Now you are ready to cook curries and other savory dishes!
Tips:
- Divide out into small portions in air tight sealed containers. Put 1 in fridge for daily use, put the rest in freezer. Thaw overnight in the fridge and it will be ready to use the next day. The refrigerator portion will stay good for a month, the frozen portion will be good up to 6 months in the freezer.
- Peeling garlic is not fun and your hands will smell like garlic for days! I recommend buying already peeled garlic from the grocery stores, its totally worth it. Easily available in Indian and Asian grocery stores.
- When picking fresh ginger from the store, ensure it has nothing growing on it and the skin is smooth. Wrinkled skin is a sign of old age. Break a piece off and see if the inside looks fiberous. You want the ones that have no fibers when it breaks. Although more difficult to peel, typically smaller pieces as more tender, larger ones are more fiberous.
- Try peeling ginger with a spoon, facing upside down! It removes the least amount of skin as compared to knives.
- Adding green chili is a good trick to avoid needing fresh chili’s every time you cook.