Curry Recipes Online
Supplementary Recipes (Curry Powders, Curry Paste, Restaurant Spice Mixes) => Supplementary Recipes (Spice Mixes, Masalas, Pastes, Oils, Stocks, etc) => Topic started by: colin grigson on March 02, 2012, 03:05 PM
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Hi clever forum friends
Can anyone tell me if it's normal or not for my garlic and ginger paste to go blue in the fridge overnight .. I blend approx 4:1 garlic/ginger with a couple of drops of water and then transfer to a small tupperware container that is airtight and with little air in it ie: full to brim with paste.
I've tasted it and it looks OK too just this strange vivid blue colour like it's radioactive or worse ... I don't want to poison anyone ( MIL excepted ) :)
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Hi Colin
One or two forum members have reported seeing blueish GG paste in restaurant kitchen demos, and have deliberately recreated it at home, too. I shouldn't think you'll poison anyone, certainly not after a night or two in the fridge.
Some other members and I add a glug of oil when blending it. This seems to stop it going blue or green, and I also find it helps it keep well in the fridge for at least a week, if not longer.
I've no idea what the science behind the colour change is, though!
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From what Ive read the garlic contains sulphur compounds and in the presence of copper the compound copper sulphate can be produced. This has a bright blue/green colour.
Suggestions for the source of the copper could be your water supply, using butter or lemon juice or even the metal cooking utensils you are using. It won't do you any harm to eat it.
http://www.apinchof.com/garlicqanda.htm (http://www.apinchof.com/garlicqanda.htm)
You could try the suggestion to use oil instead of water. That would probably stop it happening.
Cheers,
Paul
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I remember asking one of my more scientifically minded buddies why this blue/green colouration sometimess occurs... And he said he didn't have a clue, but would find out.
Which he did, and apparently, it's all down to something called isoallin, a compound found in garlic, which breaks down and reacts with amino acids to produce a blue-green color. (He assured me that it's harmless, and doesn't affect the taste.)
Not sure where the amino acids come from (maybe the ginger?), but as Ian says above just chug in a glug of oil when you make your GG paste up and you'll have no such issues.
My last batch has been going for a week now and looks (and tastes) as good as it did the day I made it...
[EDIT]
Sorry Paul - we must have been composing posts synchronously...
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Hi Colin
One or two forum members have reported seeing blueish GG paste in restaurant kitchen demos, and have deliberately recreated it at home, too. I shouldn't think you'll poison anyone, certainly not after a night or two in the fridge.
Some other members and I add a glug of oil when blending it. This seems to stop it going blue or green, and I also find it helps it keep well in the fridge for at least a week, if not longer.
I've no idea what the science behind the colour change is, though!
My latest effort went green / blue after a couple of days :o :o. Adding oil will stop this as Paul P and Ian S suggest. The only thing is by so doing you are creating an anaerobic environment in which botulism spores can germinate, if your garlic was infected by them :o. Just use search and enter "botulism" and you'll get a few threads pop up that are worth reading on the topic. This also includes a thread on the subject of blue/green garlic and ginger from 2005 ;D
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My first attempt at KD1 all those years ago was like that. With just onion garlic and ginger boiling away.
I thought it was a natural thing because fresh ginger is called green ginger.
When you add the rest of the ingredients, the colour balanced out, so i didnt give it another thought.
Frank. :)
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Wow that was quick guys !!
Thanks for the replies .. it's put my mind at ease .. I'll try the oil instead of water next time and go back to normal looking food !! ;D
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Hi Colin
Welcome to the forum
(radioactive vivid blue colour) No No No, sounds like old ginger to me.
Just bin it, you know it's wrong.
I do G&G = 50/50, veg oil, salt and sometimes water to thin and make it white.
Never found any reason to do any other ratio.
Use the freshest G&G you can get, or use Taj frozen blocks (ASDA,Very Good)
cheers Chewy
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Hi chewy
I've noticed Asda sell both Taj and Cofresh frozen ginger (and garlic) blocks. Have you tried both and concluded Taj is better or have you not tried the Cofresh versions? There's a small price difference, can't remember off hand which is cheapest.
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Hi chewy
I've noticed Asda sell both Taj and Cofresh frozen ginger (and garlic) blocks. Have you tried both and concluded Taj is better or have you not tried the Cofresh versions? There's a small price difference, can't remember off hand which is cheapest.
Hi NJ
Never used Corfresh, but used other products by them and they were very good.
Their Sev Mamra is positively addictive.
I think the Taj stuff was 97p a pack, seemed cheap to me and very handy
cheers Chewy
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The good thing about using oil instead of water is that it will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
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Yes CT it's a great convenience to have those little frozen blocks available straight from the freezer, I already have the Taj garlic and will pick up some ginger on my next home shopping delivery from Asda. That way I can make up small quantities of G&G paste and keep in the fridge for a few days until used. Like you, I don't see much point in varying the proportions beyond 50/50 as it's close enough to the 60/40 which restaurants use. I would defy anyone to taste any difference in a finished dish due to such a small change in ingredient proportions. ;)
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Always wondered why one of our local restaurants was called "blue garlic", now it makes sense :)
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Hi Colin,
As far as I'm aware, it's the garlic that is oxidising. I am not aware of it causing any particular problems.
Try covering it (i.e. excluding the air)...or, as others have suggested, adding oil (rather than water) to it, when you mince it.
I mince mine, with water, and freeze it in ice cube containers...then into sealable sandwich bags. No problems at all. But I do notice it will go blue if defrosted and left sitting around for a while (e.g. hours).
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And of course you can always freeze it in ice cube trays, to make your own GnG blocks.
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And of course you can always freeze it in ice cube trays, to make your own GnG blocks.
Shouldn't that read GnG Daiquiri? ;D
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Sorry for sounding stupid, but right over my head that one, what's a GnG Daiquiri?
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Sorry for sounding stupid, but right over my head that one, what's a GnG Daiquiri?
Its a classic iced cocktail of the same colour as oxidised g/g ;)
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Ahh, gotcha. ;)
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Hi Colin
Welcome to the forum
(radioactive vivid blue colour) No No No, sounds like old ginger to me.
Just bin it, you know it's wrong.
I do G&G = 50/50, veg oil, salt and sometimes water to thin and make it white.
Never found any reason to do any other ratio.
Use the freshest G&G you can get, or use Taj frozen blocks (ASDA,Very Good)
cheers Chewy
I bought the Taj frozen blocks from Asda (97p per 400 grm bag)yesterday (G&G separate), after reading this post. The difference in taste from fresh, when thawed, is neither here nor there imo. It's also much smoother than my blender could ever produce.
The jarred preserative laden Sapna, with it's 1/2 inch long fibres,is history now. It also makes blending the two to your required ratio an absolute doddle, with the neat little blocks in comes in.
I'm never in the freezer section of Asda, so would never had found this on my own.
Anyone finding g&g puree production/storage a slight pain in the a*** at times should try this if they're not already on it!
Great recommendation
ELW
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I must make the effort and get to Asda for some of this. Nothing wrong with my puree consistency though. Probably because i'm using my dinosaur Moulinex jug blender which will work its way through anything i throw at it ;D . My jar of Sapna is now languishing unloved in the fridge :( but the wall behind the cooker isn't plastered with garlic / ginger projectiles as it used to be, just little specs of bright red oil ;D
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Anyone know if Tesco do them?
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Always wondered why one of our local restaurants was called "blue garlic", now it makes sense :)
There's a restaurant in Taunton called Pink Garlic, I wonder what that is about?! :D
My paste is 60 ginger 40 garlic mix, I read with interest I should have used some oil too, but my paste goes straight into the freezer. No discernible difference to me, but if anyone has an opposing point of view I would be interested to read it 8)
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/fd544354c052a21c0ce78736b7a98616.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#fd544354c052a21c0ce78736b7a98616.jpg)
All the best
Colette :)