What do you make in your pestle and mortar?

gayleygoo

DH bought me a huge stone pestle and mortar for my birthday, and for quite a while I just used it to crush peppercorns

Yesterday I crushed the ginger, garlic and chillies for a curry base (so much easier and fun than chopping), then made garam masala in it (thank you to the lovely Joolzred for the recipe on her thread ), which was brilliant! I had whole cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, cloves, various seeds that looked unmashable. I threw all the spices in there, and for the first few minutes of pounding I thought nothing at all was happening. A short time later, there was a lovely crushed powder of spice. I will definitely make it again.

What else do people use their pestle and mortars for?

BakerBoy

Not a lot Gaylegoo. I only really use it to get the seeds out of cardamom pods these days. About 12 years ago I bought this thing called a Magic Bullet. It's great for grinding coffee, curry pastes, pesto etc. They don't last forever and I'm on my third one. But well worth it.

hoglet121

I use mine for whole spices and also making a paste with garlic and salt, which is divine.

Can't say I use it for much more than that, but I think what it's designed for really.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the compliment Gaylegoo!

I use ours for making small masalas for particular recipes. Just wipe it out between uses.

Heavier larger P & M sets work much better as it's the weight of the pestle that does a lot of the work.

SailorSam

It's sat on the worktop for years used only to keep pens & pencils in.

sillyvixen

when i had a cat, i used my pestle and morter to grind up tablets before adding to tuna and mayo to fool him into eating the things - cant say use it anymore.:rotfl:

TravellingAbuela

SailorSam wrote: »

It's sat on the worktop for years used only to keep pens & pencils in.

And mine is sitting on the worktop with garlic cloves in it! I keep promising myself that one day I will use it!

imho

Mine is in the kitchen full of rechargeable batteries.

D&DD

Mine is known also as the tablet crusher..:)

Queen81

D&#8517 wrote: »

Mine is known also as the tablet crusher..:)

I don't have one (want one) but I've just stood and crushed two tablets using two spoons which was messy as the bits kept flying off lol

Gemstar

I crush peanuts for the birds, they tend to bounce a bit at first so I cover the bowl partly with my hand and it does a good job
Also good for Walnuts if you just need a small amount to add to cereal, toppings etc.