Atul's garlic and onion pastes

Keep these in the freezer to speed up your curry cooking.

Atul Kochhar's garlic and onion pastes Credit: Bloomsbury / Mike Cooper

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Onion paste

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 500 g onions, coarsely chopped
• 100 g (about 6 tbsp) Ginger-Garlic Paste
• 1 tsp sea salt

Ginger-garlic paste

• 2 large garlic heads, 75 g each, separated into cloves and peeled
• 150 g fresh ginger, peeled weight, coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp water

Garlic paste

• 2 large garlic heads, 75 g each, separated into cloves and peeled
• 4 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Onion paste makes about 600 g, ginger-garlic paste makes about 225 g, garlic paste makes about 200 g.

Instructions

For the onion paste, heat the oil over a medium-high heat in a large sauté or frying pan that is ideally non-stick. Add the onions, the ginger-garlic paste and salt, and stir frequently for 25 minutes, or until the onions are browned. Watch carefully towards the end of cooking so the mixture doesn’t catch and burn, which can happen very quickly. If they do burn, you’ll have to throw them out and start over – there isn’t any way to rescue them.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor while it’s still warm and blitz to a fine paste. Leave to cool completely, then store in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks, or freeze for up to 3 months.

To make the ginger-garlic paste, put the garlic cloves, ginger and water in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade and blitz, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until a paste forms.

This keeps in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks, or can be frozen for up to 3 months.

For the garlic paste, put the garlic cloves, water and vegetable oil in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade and blitz, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until a paste forms.

This keeps in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks, or can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Recipe from 30 Minute Curries by Atul Kochhar (Bloomsbury, hb, $39.99). Enter to WIN your own copy here. 

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.