Molcajete

This Christmas, I received a wonderful Mexican food gift - a molcajete and tejolote, which is like the Mexican equivalent of what in English is called a mortar (molcajete) and pestle (tejolote). The molcajete is used to grind herbs, but is most commonly used to crush garlic and chiles for salsa recipes. (Surprising, right?) Proper molcajetes and tejolotes are made out of lava rock, and a fair amount at market are painted with little pig heads near the top rim (I'm not entirely sure why).

If you are lucky enough to receive such a gift, make sure that you listen to the guy at the market (or this post) and season it before use. To season the lava rock, put 2 tablespoons of dry, raw rice into the molcajete and grind it nice and good (about 10 minutes), wash it, let it dry, and repeat. This makes the porous rock scratchy and irregular, which helps to crush and smash the bigger type ingredients usually put in here.

And now you can make some really rustic salsa in your molcajete (which everyone down here agrees tastes better than salsa in a blender - it's the taste of effort, I guess).