Essential Ingredient for Indian Cooking - Garlic/Ginger paste

I use rather a lot of this as I make a lot of Indian food. It's an essential Ingredient in most of my Curry Sauces and Dhals.

I go off down to St Albans market on a Saturday and look for the stall with the freshest-looking ginger I can find. Good fresh Ginger can be difficult to find. It should look plump and juicy with a shiny skin and not dried out. I buy approximately 300g. I then look for the stall that's got good garlic, ideally big heads, with large individual cloves, and a tinge of purple to the skin. I buy the same quantity of Garlic as Ginger - approximately 300g.

Making the paste is simple but a little time-consuming. Peel all the garlic and put it in a blender. Then peel the Ginger, chop it into small pieces and put that in the blender too. Add a little touch of water and pulse the mixture. Adjust the amount of water as you go so that you end up with a smooth, thick paste that smells amazing.

Put the paste into ice-cube trays and freeze for later use. I find that a normal size Curry sauce for 2 portions/people will require 2 cubes of paste.