Molcajete: Grind, Mix & Serve

Filed in archive Gadgets , Trends on January 13, 2006

What is a cute little piggy doing heavy duty work?!

I've been fascinated with Mexican food lately. It never fails to perk up my tastebuds. Almost everyone I know likes fresh and robust flavours, with the optional heat to spice it up all the more. That partly explains why Mexican restaurants are fast spreading throughout the US recently.

Mexican food is so popular even McDonald's Corp. is into it! How's that for being hot? ;)

Jen Haberkorn writes in The Washington Times article America runs to the border:

"Mexican fast-food restaurants have taken a place among the top restaurant chains in the country, wiggling into a space between precooked hamburgers and sit-down fare."

When cooking anything from the simplest one-pot meals to the most sophisticated menus, it is always best to use the freshest ingredients and of course the right implements. Whenever possible, I try to go all out and be authentic. More often it is out of curiosity. Don't you want to know how the real thing tastes? Sometimes though, it's for the heck of it. No wonder I've accumulated enough gadgets to let me open an antique kitchen museum in a few years.

One of the implements I'm not sorry to have is a stone mortar with its accompanying pestle. It's not as cute as piggy-wiggy above but it comes very close. Called a molcajete, it is from volcanic rock. The pestle is called the tejolete or mano. I find them indispensable for grinding salsa ingredients. The flavors just meld so much better than modern food processors. A few wipes and it makes for a nifty salsa server.


Preseasoned Pig Molcajete available at Sur La Table
Unseasoned Molcajete also available at Stony Mountain Botanicals