What do you use your mortar & pestle for?

[My Cuppa Tea]

I just bought a marble mortar & pestle for a great price. What sorts of things do you use yours for? I'd love some ideas.

 

[Aurora]

You can use it for grinding things such as dried spices like whole coriander seed or other seeds. It can also be used to mash things into a paste like garlic with fresh spice leaves such as basil or mint. It is not an indispensable kitchen tool but very handy for some things.

 

[Bilby]

Everything that Aurora said, I second! Plus oil-based salad dressings.

I also use it at times to lightly grind spices like coriander seeds as a room freshner, a sort of spical potpourri.

 

[flukx]

Same as above. I use mine primarily for grinding spices for making curries and for oil based dressings or pesto.

 

[bbally]

Been reading a lot of reference materials on Paprika and Chile powder. Using it a lot to make my own blends. I grew 20 different peppers in the garden this year to try my hand at these mixes.

So far so good.

 

[Michelemarie]

As stated above!

 

[sparrowgrass]

I put a clove of garlic with some salt into the mortar, and mush the garlic to a paste. I generally use that paste in a tomato salad--chopped tomatoes, a slosh of cider or wine vinegar, and 2 sloshes of olive oil. Let it sit for an hour or so at room temp before serving.

Really about the only thing I use mine for.

 

[bknox]

If you are grinding spices on a regular basis or enjoy fresh toasted chili powder you may want to invest in a coffee grinder. I use my morter and pestal all the time for all the reasons mentioned above but it is only really good with small portions.

Sometimes I will make a cup or more of taosted chili powder or a blend, like curry, and I use a high speed coffee grinder for that.

 

[GotGarlic]

I put a clove of garlic with some salt into the mortar, and mush the garlic to a paste. I generally use that paste in a tomato salad--chopped tomatoes, a slosh of cider or wine vinegar, and 2 sloshes of olive oil. Let it sit for an hour or so at room temp before serving.

Really about the only thing I use mine for.

I use the mortar and pestle for crushing garlic and salt, too. Then I put the mixture with some melted butter and use it to make garlic bread. Like bknox, I have an extra coffee grinder for grinding larger amounts of spices.

 

[GB]

Like other said, all of the above.

I love using it to make pesto. I find the texture worlds better than if I make it in the food processor. It does take a lot of work, but the end result is worth it IMO.

 

[tropical cooker]

I use mine to grind, dried sourdough bread starter, for long term storage in the freezer.

 

[My Cuppa Tea]

Thanks for all the ideas! My family and I have been visiting New Mexico, and while here we picked up some sun-dried chiles. Maybe I could make chile powder from those?

I love the idea of making pesto with this.

 

[alexa]

The mortar and pestle would be of great use when preparing pesto or even guacamole. It is also great for grounding into powder spices as well as grinding herbs to create seasoning mixtures or paste. If you are into cooking thai food, the mortar and pestle would definitely come in handy as the key ingredients of thai food include crushed garlic, basil, tamarind, lemon grass and others to infuse these ingredients' strong flavor.

 

[suziquzie]

Mine is for decoration.

 

[oneoffour]

The mortars vary in how rough the inside surface is. We have a marble one that if you would try to break up bay leaves in it the surface is so smooth they just slide in a circle.
A granite one that is a little rough however breaks up the leaves easily. Saw a big Mexican one that was nasty rough and was told it was to grind corn.

My wife is a phramacist since they use to be used to prepare medicine we got into a little collection of them.

 

[pcheftina]

I use mine to make mojitos.....I squeeze the lime into the sugar and mash the spearmint all together in the mortar & pistle....I've been told my mojitos are the best!!

 

[Robo410]

I crush grind herbs and spices in mine. I use a mocajete for smashing garlic and other gooey items.

 

[Corey123]

I sometimes use it to crush garlic.

 

[mcnerd]

Mine is used for all of the above, but lately I used it to help make onion powder from home dehydrating some onions (very aromatic process that drives everything live out of the house). The food processor only takes it so far and I don't want to contaminate my coffee grinder.

 

[vilasman]

I am sorta of lazy with mine. I tend to raid marshalls,ross and tj max and buy the mary elizabeth spice blends. Then i will take tsp or a tbspn of say the kansas city blend, the garlic blend, the pepper blend and maybe the herbs du provence and crush it then coat a piece of meat with it, usually lamb and roast that and use at least some of the rest for the accompanying vegetable.
If I have some left in the morning i may hit the eggs with it.

It is not good for large amounts, i have a coffee grinder too... but to make a little mix for one meal or one dish it is the bomb.

Mine is glass, glass mortar with a very fine grit in the bowl and a glass pestle also with a fine grit. I will get a coarser one probably granite when i find one at a decent price at one of the above stores.