Incorporating Garlic and Onions into a sauce.

[thymeless]

The Madhur Jaffrey saag dish I make has some onion ginger garlic puree as I recall. It gets cooked in oil with spices so it is not the same situation as OP. But the saute cooked or the harsh tones to my taste.

Just any option to consider.

 

[jennyema]

IMHO, sourcing is so important.

I am very choosy about garlic. I only buy garlic from Central California, near the garlic Mecca of Gilroy.

CD

I’m picky, too. Supermarket garlic is terrible and almost always from China.

We can’t get Gilroy garlic easier out here so I’ve taken to buying copious amounts of garlic from our neighbor’s garden stand and then freezing it.

Now, I grow a ton myself and freeze it. If I had only realized how easy it was to grow garlic, I would have been doing it for years

 

[msmofet]

I’m picky, too. Supermarket garlic is terrible and almost always from China.

We can’t get Gilroy garlic easier out here so I’ve taken to buying copious amounts of garlic from our neighbor’s garden stand and then freezing it.

Now, I grow a ton myself and freeze it. If I had only realized how easy it was to grow garlic, I would have been doing it for years

You're right. Store garlic heads stinks.
I usually buy these. Says Gilroy's finest on bag. I chop in FP and freeze.

These are individual packs of about 6 cloves each

This is a bag of cloves

 

[caseydog]

Kinkaid Garlic from COSTCO is California.

CD

 

[taxlady]

I buy garlic grown in Quebec. I get it from local farmers from Lufa Farms (my produce basket place) and I also get it in packages from some supermarkets. I quit buying grocery store garlic a long time ago. I tried some organic garlic from the health food store and it was sooo much better. I don't know where it was from.

 

[caseydog]

Kinkaid Garlic from COSTCO is California.

CD

I meant Kirkland... autocorrect got me, again.

CD

 

[Shining Wizard]

I’m not a big fan of freezing garlic. I find it becomes too mushy when you thaw it.
But I always buy too much when fresh.
Because, as I have mentioned, I live in a very Mediterranean community, a lot of the nonnas here have those knots of garlic hanging in their kitchen which somehow doesn’t work for me. They always end up going to rot.
I have the jarred stuff and I realise that it isn’t the best but it works for me.

 

[caseydog]

I have the jarred stuff and I realise that it isn’t the best but it works for me.

I'm okay with jarlic. Kirkland jarlic at COSTCO is very good, but most jarlic is from China, and has weak flavor.

CD

 

[Shining Wizard]

Strangely, perhaps, but I buy my jarlic from Korea and it is far better than anything on Australian shelves

 

[caseydog]

Strangely, perhaps, but I buy my jarlic from Korea and it is far better than anything on Australian shelves

California garlic is amazing, especially if comes from Gilroy, California.

Gilroy Garlic Festival | July 25–27, 2025 | Garlicky Food & Fun in Gilroy CA

Celebrate the return of the Gilroy Garlic Festival! Join us July 25–27, 2025, for gourmet garlic dishes, live music, family fun, and a reimagined festival experience.

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CD

 

[pictonguy]

Garlic is one of the products I mostly use fresh and get locally and is generally organic. If I'm without local garlic which is generally in the deep winter then I will use Christopher Ranch which is probably one of the best garlics available and for the restaurant we only use Christopher Ranch, the convenience and steady supply is important. Personally I wouldn't buy jarred garlic with someone else's money, the taste is just off.

 

[taxlady]

I’m not a big fan of freezing garlic. I find it becomes too mushy when you thaw it.

Don't freeze the cloves whole. If you mince it by hand or by machine before you freeze it, it works fine in food. It works best to freeze it in one clove or teaspoon sized chunks, so it is easy to take out the amount you need for a recipe. I have one of these:

Garlic Freezer Tray - Lee Valley Tools

Discover the Garlic Freezer Tray. Buy this product now on our Lee Valley online store.

www.leevalley.com

 

[jennyema]

Don't freeze the cloves whole. If you mince it by hand or by machine before you freeze it, it works fine in food. It works best to freeze it in one clove or teaspoon sized chunks, so it is easy to take out the amount you need for a recipe. I have one of these:

Garlic Freezer Tray - Lee Valley Tools

Discover the Garlic Freezer Tray. Buy this product now on our Lee Valley online store.

www.leevalley.com

I freeze the cloves whole. Have done so for years. It is softer when thawed but for me that works well for most things I cook. It makes it easier to mince or turn into a paste.

Ice cube trays seem like a whole lot of bother. And does pre-mincing. I often use cloves whole and if I want it minced, it takes 10 seconds.

 

[Shining Wizard]

I’m weird. Everyone says so.
I have two passions in my food:
Asian
Italian
I spend a lot of my grocery dollars in the Asian market, and I have an online shop where I am always buying.
I buy a kilo of peeled garlic in a shrink wrapped bag and when I open it to use, the rest goes into my freezer. But then when I grab some to use, it is always mushy. But the reality is that I can’t do my Asian or Italian dishes without it!

 

[caseydog]

Garlic is one of the products I mostly use fresh and get locally and is generally organic. If I'm without local garlic which is generally in the deep winter then I will use Christopher Ranch which is probably one of the best garlics available and for the restaurant we only use Christopher Ranch, the convenience and steady supply is important. Personally I wouldn't buy jarred garlic with someone else's money, the taste is just off.

The fresh garlic I can buy in North Texas grocery stores is not good. It is mostly imported from Asia, and is weak in flavor, as I mentioned before.

Christopher Ranch is based in Gilroy, CA. The best garlic in the world, IMHO. I've been to the Monterey peninsula many times, and stayed in a hotel in Gilroy once, and woke up to the smell of the garlic fields. Most people would not like that, but for me, the smell was wonderful.

CD

 

[pictonguy]

The fresh garlic I can buy in North Texas grocery stores is not good. It is mostly imported from Asia, and is weak in flavor, as I mentioned before.

Christopher Ranch is based in Gilroy, CA. The best garlic in the world, IMHO. I've been to the Monterey peninsula many times, and stayed in a hotel in Gilroy once, and woke up to the smell of the garlic fields. Most people would not like that, but for me, the smell was wonderful.

CD

Yeah, that would be something, and I would really enjoy being there to experience it.

There's an area in Ontario called the "Holland Marsh" a relatively small area of around 3000 acres and once a glacial lake leaving this in a hollow with the most fertile soil in Ontario, It's a musk soil mostly black and is know to grow carrots and onions back in the day. When I was a kid and we travelled north to cottage country, and the major hwy would swoop down into this hollow and out the other side with the strong smell of carrots and the unaccustomed black soil was overwhelming to the senses.

 

[caseydog]

Yeah, that would be something, and I would really enjoy being there to experience it.

There's an area in Ontario called the "Holland Marsh" a relatively small area of around 3000 acres and once a glacial lake leaving this in a hollow with the most fertile soil in Ontario, It's a musk soil mostly black and is know to grow carrots and onions back in the day. When I was a kid and we travelled north to cottage country, and the major hwy would swoop down into this hollow and out the other side with the strong smell of carrots and the unaccustomed black soil was overwhelming to the senses.

Here in North Texas, the soil is called "black gumbo," and it is mostly clay. My herb garden soil has been heavily modified. There is a 3,000 acre ranch a few blocks from my house, but all that grows there is cattle and horses. I can't harvest them without getting arrested.

The Monterey peninsula in California is a wonderful place. If you like good food, there is a lot of it there. My career took me there many times, and I ate a lot of wonderful food there.

CD

 

[msmofet]

I process my peeled garlic cloves in a mini FP, nothing added. I will usually start with a large dice/mince and pull some out. Then continue to process to fine mince. When done with the whole bag, I place garlic in Ziploc bags, press into thin layer all the way to edge of bag, to remove as much air as possible. Then freeze flat. Easy-peasy. Just snap off as much or little as I want, then back in freezer. I keep the bags in a lock-n-lock container to contain odor. I get about 3 sandwich bags out of one of the above bags.

 

[FeistyApricot]

I've recently come across and tried a few recipes ( mostly Indian) where instead of sautéing the garlic , onion ( and sometimes ginger) first, they are added raw into a blender with tomatoes and other stuff, and eventually added to the dish to cook down in the pan ( basically boiling). Any time I do this , I get a certain bitterness or unpleasant taste when compared to if I sautéed those ingredients first. I know these ingredients have different flavors depending on how they are cooked ( fried, boiled , caramelized , baked .. whatever method), I just find them unpleasant when blended up raw and tossed into a sauce. I know usually when cooked, these ingredients lose a lot of their raw potency, but I find the above method just transforms them into an unpleasant taste. The bad flavors dont change during the cooking process. Just curious if maybe Im doing something wrong. I've seen it in other cuisines as well, but I recently came across it in a few Indian dishes.

Hello to all. First post here. I love Indian food and cook it a lot. Could you please submit the recipe that you attempted with the pre-blended onion etc? I am curious about the spice-group that was called for.

 

[Kathleen]

@FeistyApricot Welcome to DC!