How to make & freeze onion masala in large quantity

How to freeze onion masala

Onion masala is the basic Ingredients in many Indian vegetable and meat curries, and basic onion masala is prepared with onions, garlic, tomatoes and spices like coriander powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder.

Masala is a very generic term used to describe any blend of spices in Indian cooking. It could by the mixture of spices or it could by the mixture of other ingredients with spices. Onion masala is a mixture of onion, garlic, tomatoes and some aromatic spices.

In recent year’s Indian cuisine gaining popularity, so does the Indian cooking. There are various mouthwatering curry dishes, but they seems to be time consuming to prepare day to day basis but it can be quick and easy to cook. Prepare the basic onion masala in large quantity with onion, garlic and tomatoes and freeze it. When ready to cook take it out from the freezer and it is ready to use, and cooking curries are so easy and so quick.

It takes some time to make masala in large quantity but once it is made, it is a great time saver and it could be used for few months. This is the basic onion masala, when you are going to cook adjust the spices according to dish you are going to make you can add yogurt, fresh ginger, green chilies, garam masala or any other spice.

Ingredients:

4    Pounds onions
¼   Cup or 15 medium size cloves of garlic or to your taste
4    Medium ripe tomatoes or as much you like
6    Tablespoons (3 oz) of coriander powder
1    Tablespoons red chili powder or to your taste
1    Tablespoon turmeric powder
½   Cup vegetable oil or as needed

Cooking measurement conversion
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Onions, Garlic and tomatoes

Coriander powder

Red chili powder

Trumeric powder

Directions:

1. Peel and chop the onions and cloves of garlic.

2. Chop Tomatoes.

Onions-chopped

Garlic cloves peeled

Tomatoes chopped

Oil

3. Use a food chopper or blender to mince the onions and garlic. Mixture should be coarse. Onion fries the best if they are grated, you can use the food processer
to grate the onions.

In a food processor add onions & Garlic

Coarsely grind Onion & garlic

4. On medium high heat add oil in a nonstick frying pan.

In a pan add oil

5. Transfer minced onions and garlic in a wide nonstick frying pan for first
10 to 15 minutes keep the heat high, onions will have lot of water so let the
water dry up, stirring occasionally later reduce the heat to medium low so
that onions do not burn.

Transfer minced onions and garlic in the frying pan

Mix onion & garlic with oil and fry

5. While onions are frying, they splatter, cover the pan and let the water dry up.

Let the onion fry

Cover the pan and let the onions fry

6. Occasionally take the cover off and stir onions so that they do not burn. Put the
cover back until it stops splattering

Occasionally stir onions

Place the cover back on the pan

Let the onion fry

7. While onion mixture cooks add the tomato to the same food chopper or blender
and puree.

In the food processor add chopped tomatoes

Puree Tomatoes

8. Once the water evaporated it stop splattering . let the onions fry for 25 to 30
minutes or until onions become medium brown. Occasionally stir the onions so
that they do not burn from the bottom.

Onion becomes brown

9. Once onion become brown add coriander powder, red chili powder and
turmeric powder and mix with fried onions and fry for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add coriander powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder

Mix spices with fried onions

10. Add tomato puree and mix and let it cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until all the
moisture evaporated and you start seeing the oil in the pan, turn the stove off,

Add tomato puree

Mix tomato puree with fried onions & spices

Let the tomato puree cook

Start seeing oil in the pan

Onion masala is ready

11. Let the onion masala cool down completely. I usually transfer the onion
masala in a bowl and keep it uncovered on the counter until it cools down
then place it in refrigreator and make the cubes next day, this way there is
no moisture in the masala, otherwise moisture becomes crystal when it
freezes.

Onion masala

12. When onion masala completely cools down, transfer it into ice cube making
trays and place them in the freezer.

13. Once onion masala freeze, remove onion masala cubes from the ice trays
and store them in the plastic zip lock bag.

Fill the ice cube trays with onion masala

Frozen onion masala in ice trays

14. Whenever you need to make curry just take out some cubes and place them in
a pan and sprinkle little water on low heat, cubes will melt in few minutes
then proceed to make your dish.

Frozen onion masala cubes

14. Whenever you need to make curry just take out some cubes and place them in
a pan and sprinkle little water on low heat, cubes will melt in few minutes
then proceed to make your dish.

Tips:

1. This is a basic onion masala you could adjust the spices and add other
ingredients according to dish you are going to make.

2. Cool the onion masala completely before freezing because the condensed steam
from the hot onion masala turn into icicles

3. Onion masala could be freeze in a small containers or small zip lock bags
according to need.

Please take the time to let me know what you think about my recipe. Your comments would be helpful to me to improve the recipe.

Thank you

Geeta Seth

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