Ginger Garlic Paste
Also known as: adrak-lehsun paste
What Ginger Garlic Paste is
The two-ingredient base paste that starts most restaurant and home curry cooking: fresh ginger and garlic ground together, fried in the first minute so everything built after it tastes finished. Restaurant kitchens mix it by the kilogram; a jar in the fridge buys the same result.
Nothing more than ginger and garlic ground to a paste, in the standard working ratio of roughly two parts ginger to one part garlic by volume. In place of chopping both at the start of every curry, the paste goes into hot oil after the whole spices, is fried until the raw smell lifts, and the onion-and-tomato base follows. Commercial jars add oil, salt and an acidity regulator to keep the blend from turning grey.
Taste and texture
Sharp and pungent raw — more ginger than garlic, by design. Fried properly it disappears into the base, leaving a round savoury floor rather than a flavour you can name. A jar that tastes vinegary or fizzy has fermented past its best.
Forms to buy
- Jarred paste — The standard buy in Japan, typically ¥400–¥600 per kilogram.
- Homemade — Ginger, garlic, neutral oil and salt, blended; keeps weeks refrigerated under its oil layer.
- Frozen portions — Ice-cube trays of homemade paste; drop one into the pan straight from the freezer.
How to cook it
Count on 1–2 tablespoons per curry for four people. Fry it in oil or ghee after cumin and before the onions, and give it a minute — the raw, acrid smell cooking off is the signal the base is ready. It starts butter chicken and mutton curries, seasons momo fillings, and marinates chicken for tandoori-style cooking. If it browns fast and bitter, the pan was too hot.
Buying note
Typically ¥400–¥600 per kilogram at Indian grocers — far cheaper than assembling the ingredients. Refrigerate after opening and finish the jar within a few weeks. The short ingredient list — ginger, garlic, oil, salt — is the mark of the better brands.