Fresh ginger and fresh garlic are used a lot in Indian cooking, especially when cooking with meat. A lot of us find it time consuming to chop ginger and garlic for our cooking. Here are a few time saver techniques:
GINGER
Ginger can be used with the skin-on, so no need to chop off the skin, just rinse and its ready to use. I use a cheese grater or a box grater to grate ginger directly into the pot while cooking, it saves me time and effort. If you insist on peeling the skin out of ginger, then use the back of a spoon to scrape off the skin, do not use a knife. Using a knife will take out excess amount of ginger.
GARLIC
Garlic is always used without skin. These days, supermarkets have peeled garlic, and I find them very useful. But if you insist to buy non-peeled garlic (no. 1 reason is they are relatively inexpensive), I would use a microwave to peeel the skin out. Put 3 - 4 garlic cloves in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and you will hear them pop and the skin comes off easily. Precaution: garlic can be really hot when it take it out of the microwave, so keep that in mind. Also, some pieces of garlic will steam/ cook in this process, but if you are ok with it, then this is a very good way to take skin off of garlic.
GINGER GARLIC PASTE
If you have been following my recipes, you will notice the use of ginger garlic paste. We use this combination frequently in curries, hence I make a paste and refrigerate. It lasts me for a couple of weeks.
Ingredients
1/2 lb ginger, rinsed and roughly chopped NOT PEELED
1/2 lb peeled garlic
1 cup water
Instructions
Pour the water and then add ginger and garlic (yes, all of it) in a blender, blend for a minute.
Empty in an ice-tray and freeze, you get ice-cubes. Each ice-cube is about 2 tbsps of ginger garlic paste. Use as required, thaw for 30 seconds before using a cube.
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