M01Kerala Garam Masala
The southern register — aromatic, not earthy
M16
Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilli Paste
Three aromatics, one jar, honest limits
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringNo salt, no vinegar, no preservative, and therefore short storage — which is the honest trade. Commercial pastes keep for months because of what is in them; this keeps a week in the fridge and three months in the freezer, and tastes of the three things it contains.
Three aromatics, one jar, honest limits [LOW SODIUM] [VEGAN]
Every second Kerala recipe begins with ginger, garlic and green chilli, and grinding them fresh each time is the small friction that pushes people towards a jar of something else. The green chilli, rather than the two-ingredient northern paste, is what makes this Kerala's version: the chilli goes in from the start and its heat becomes part of the base rather than a later decision.
Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilli Paste
Active 15 minutes Total 15 minutes
Scale
340 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓150 g ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- ✓150 g (about 40 cloves) garlic, peeled
- ✓50 g (about 10) green chillies, stalks removed
- ✓15 g (1 tbsp) sesame or groundnut oil
- ✓2–3 tbsp water, only if the machine needs it
Allergens: None of the major allergens as the recipe is written. Sesame or peanuts — whichever of the two oils you use.
Equipment: Mixie or small blender jar; ammikkallu if you have one. A stone-ground paste is coarser, glossier and does not warm in the jar; with a mixie, grind in short bursts and stop before the jar feels warm.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Grind the ginger first, alone, in short bursts until it is a fine paste with no fibrous strands, 45–60 seconds. Ginger ground with garlic stays stringy.
- Add the garlic and green chilli and grind in bursts until uniform and no white flecks of garlic remain, 45–60 seconds, scraping down twice. If the jar feels warm to the back of your hand, stop and let it cool — a warm paste turns bitter and the garlic goes stale within a day.
- Add the oil and pulse 5 seconds. The oil coats the paste, slows oxidation and keeps the colour bright.
- Pack into a clean dry jar, level the surface and pour a thin film of oil over the top — or portion into an ice-cube tray at 15 g a well and freeze.
Why this worksCrushing garlic converts alliin to allicin via alliinase, which is why crushed garlic tastes of something raw garlic does not — and why allicin degrades over hours into sulphur compounds that make an old paste taste stale rather than pungent. Ginger's gingerols are more stable but its long fibres resist a blade, which is why it is ground first and alone. The oil film slows both processes.
Sourcing note
Young ginger with thin skin grinds smoother and tastes less fibrous than old ginger, whose woody core should be cut out. Peeled garlic in tubs is a reasonable shortcut and about 20% less pungent. Use the chilli your household tolerates: Kerala's pacha mulaku is moderate, a Thai bird chilli four or five times hotter, a jalapeño about half as hot.
If you are watching…
Blood pressure and cholesterol: garlic is the one aromatic in this book whose effective dose overlaps ordinary cooking. Pooled across 108 trials and 7,137 participants, garlic gave −3.7/−2.0 mmHg on blood pressure, LDL cholesterol −5.9 mg/dL and total cholesterol −10.2 mg/dL (Behrouz et al., 2026). A tablespoon of this paste carries about 6.5 g of garlic, and two tablespoons a day across a household's cooking is a plausible route to the lower end of trial intakes. Chapter 9 sets out exactly what that evidence does and does not support.
Anticoagulants: garlic and ginger in quantity can add to the effect of warfarin and similar medicines. If you take one, mention to your doctor that you cook with garlic regularly. Do not change any medicine.
Swap it
Add 6 g salt → keeps about twice as long in the fridge and adds roughly 100 mg of sodium per tablespoon. In a book about blood pressure, freeze it instead.
Add 15 ml coconut vinegar → keeps 2–3 weeks refrigerated, at the cost of a sour edge that shows in delicate dishes.
Garlic only → for dishes where ginger's brightness is wrong, as in some Mappila preparations; keeps rather less well. Ginger only → for temple-register and formal sadya cooking, where onion and garlic are excluded.
Scale it
Grind 300 g batches in two goes; a full jar heats before it grinds smooth.
Make ahead · store · freeze
Fridge 7 days with an oil film on the surface — a real limit, not a cautious one; by day ten an unsalted paste tastes stale. Freeze 3 months in 15 g portions. Use from frozen, straight into the pan.
Leftovers
Freeze in a flat sheet and snap off what you need; a paste that has been thawed should not go back. In the fridge, a jar with a film of oil on the surface keeps a fortnight and a jar without one keeps a week. If the paste has gone grey and smells of sulphur rather than of garlic, discard it — that is the garlic breaking down, and no amount of cooking recovers it.
Troubleshooting
Bitter: the jar warmed during grinding. Grind in bursts and let it cool between.
Stringy: the ginger was ground with the garlic, or was old and woody.
Turned bluish-green: a harmless reaction between garlic's sulphur compounds and trace acids and metals. Safe to eat, though it usually means the paste is past its best.
Sharp and stale: it is over a week old. Freeze the next batch.
Serve with
R040 Nadan Kozhi Curry · R043 Kozhi Porichathu, Rebuilt · R048 Beef Ularthiyathu, Traditional and Rebuilt · R061 Kerala Chana Masala · R052 Liver Fry — and, more broadly, fish marinades, biryani and neychoru, egg preparations, and the base of M15 if you would rather not chop.
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