Working full time and living away from any shops selling ethnic food stuff, I have to buy in bulk whenever I can get any fresh herbs or vegetables. Most curries tend to need, ginger, garlic or fresh green chillies I am sharing with you my tips on how to freeze ginger, garlic and green chillies. It is really easy and simple and I am sure most of you must be doing the same.
Ingredients
Fresh ginger
lemon juice
a very small amount of salt
Fresh green chillies
Method:
For ginger:
1. Soak the fresh ginger for at least half an hour.
2. Peel the ginger and using a sharp knife or grater, cut it into small slices.
3. Wash it again and put it in a blender
4. Cover the ginger slices with fresh lemon and add a small amount of salt (less than a teaspoon). I tend to add enough mixture of half lemon juice and half water to enable the blender to blend the ginger.
5. Once blended, pour them into ice cube trays. (I picked up some cheap trays which I only use for freezing the ginger and chillies). The cubes from my ice tray are just the right size for my cooking. You can half fill your trays if you feel you do not need a whole cube for your cooking. Or you can make your mixture slightly runny and freeze it if you don't want a big concentration of ginger.
6. Freeze this mixture overnight. Remove the cubes and save them in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
For Green chillies:
1. Wash the chillies and remove the stems
2. Cut them into managable pieces.
3. Put them in the blender, pour in a mixture of half lemon juice and half water together with salt and blend. Again- you can make the mixture slightly runny if you don't want to use too much chilly concentration. Once frozen - they should be the right concentration for your cooking.
4. Pour them in the ice trays.
5. When frozen remove and save in a zip lock bag in the freezer
For Garlic
For Garlic, peel the garlic and blend it with a very small amount salt, 2-3 tteaspoons of lemon and some water. Once blended, pour into ice tray and freeze overnight. remove and save in zip lock bags.
Tip: You can blend ginger garlic and chillies separately or together. Here I have frozen a layer of garlic and then frozen some green chillies in the same ice tray to make a combination of the two flavours.
Frozen Ginger, garlic and chillies are ideal to use in any recipe. You can use them frozen or defrosted depending on the recipe. They are perfect for any curries, dalls and soups plus they save a lot of time.
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