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I really consider a some kind of spice grinding equipment to be a must-have these days. I hate those flavorless jars of powder so much that when my friend and I opened our own kitchen, we swore never to use powdered spices for any reason. Easiest would be to get one of the electric or coffee grinders listed above. Mortar and pestle works well, but if you have the time to season a molcajete, I'd take that over the M&P. Molcajetes have a coarser build, so they'll grind down whatever you want in a flash. They have that added effect that cast iron does in that once you season it, you never need to wash it with soap again, and it will only result in better-tasting food as time goes by. The only real problem with them is that the seasoning is a process. I could do a write-up for that if it pleases the court.
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Nov 7, 2015 23:19
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Captain Bravo posted:Holy poo poo, please do this immediately. I love my Molcajete because it grinds so well, but I had no idea that seasoning it was even a thing. It's such a major pain in the rear end to try and wash it thoroughly after each time I use it, I should have known I was doing something wrong. I was gonna do a more in-depth thing with pics and stuff, but I'll just throw in a quick and dirty one. Seasoning molcajetes is a bit of a pain, but really worth it. I've heard a million ways, but this is how a person in Merida taught me how. 1) Soaking: Take the molcajete and tejolote (the pestle part) and soak them fully in a container of water for 12-24 hours. When they're out, immediately start hitting them with some kind of metal brush (I use my small copper brush from my workbench). Just run it over the food-touching parts (bowl, bottom of the tejolote) until there's a relative smoothness. You don't need to go nuts, especially on the non-food-touching parts. Two or three quick strokes against any surface is fine enough. 2) Grinding your Beans: Clean and rinse the molcajete and let it sit for another day or so until it's fully dry. Depending on factors, it may be an overall darker color now, maybe not. Once it's completely dry, take half-handful of dried beans of your choice, and start grinding them into powder, making sure you're grinding against as many different surface areas of the bowl as is possible. Don't pound; you want to be grinding them in a sort of stirring motion. If you're having trouble breaking them down, you can throw the dried beans in a blender or food processor to crack them open a bit (that's how I actually learned it from Mexicans. The blender may be one of the most indispensable modern utilities for Mexican cooking). Grind that powder up and down into the bowl. You'll notice it goes from white to a gray*. That's what you want. It means that you're wearing away the outer layers of the molcajete. Basically two goes with the beans is enough. The rice ends up doing more work. Wash out the bowl with hot water and some kind of scrubbing implement. 3) Grinding Rice: Start taking half-handfuls of dry rice and grinding them. You can use the blender trick again to break them up into smaller chunks if the grinding is too much work. You want to hit the whole surface of the bowl again, pulverizing the rice into every nook along the surface. It'll be the same deal as the beans. Dump out the powder you make as the batches turn from gray to white. You can make some hor chata out of the last powder or whatever. Then you want to take some rice soaked in water for about 15 minutes, and grind it down into a paste (use the blender again if needed). You can do additional batches if you want, but it's not really necessary. Scrub it out with some hot soapy water when you're done, and wait to dry again. The surface of the bowl and tejolote should be smoother, but not completely smooth. 4) The easy part: Get about four or five large cloves of garlic, one or two fresh chiles (serrano, jalapeņo, etc.), a few pinches each of kosher or rock salt, cumin seeds, black pepper, chopped white or green onion, and mash everything into a paste**. Thoroughly Cover the bowl, tejolote, and the rim of the bowl in the past,e and let it sit for at least half a day. Then scrub the inside with hot water only. From that point on, you don't need to wash it out with soap anymore, just like cast iron. It's a loving process to be sure, but it's worth it in the long run. *For these powder steps, you don't need to be a lunatic about getting it all snow white. Lots of gringo directions will say you need to do this and that, but you mostly just want to get the easiest sand out. **This is just one way of doing it. You can throw in more or different things, but this is probably the most baseline combination. One lady from the Yucatan told me she's used that olive relish that I forgot the name of in this process, while others have said things like pickled onion. Plan Z fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Nov 8, 2015 |
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Nov 8, 2015 19:39
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