Got GUAC? tap into your inner caveman with this recipe
My favourite kitchen tool is my stone mortar and pestle. It sits proudly on my kitchen counter, holding its own in a caveman-esque sort of way, flaunting its primal elegance in between the stove and the espresso machine. It is smugly confident in its weight and kitchen hierarchy (deemed decorative) while my food processor and standing mixer are banished behind cabinet doors (deemed clutter).
New kitchen techniques are awe-inspiring and futuristic, yet my mortar is old and wise, with a lineage extending as far back as the Old Testament. Sous-vides, antigriddles and smart ovens may be cutting-edge, favoured by professional chefs and gastronomy buffs, but my mortar has a stellar history as an essential tool to Native Americans, ancient Romans and Greeks, medieval pharmacists and home cooks spanning the ages from the dawn of civilization. It is the embodiment of simplicity and timelessness, pleasingly tactile and massively elemental. And it’s affordable.
What can you do with a mortar and pestle? You can grind, pound and smash to your heart’s content, making pestos, pastes, sauces, dips, dressings and marinades. You can grind seeds into powder. (I assure you that lightly toasting cardamom, cumin or coriander seeds, and then grinding them to a fine powder in a mortar, will yield results unparalleled by the preground versions.)
The mortar is also the perfect place to smash garlic with sea salt, adding fresh-cut herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, sage, basil and mint. Crush the garlic first with the salt, then add the herbs and bruise them by giving them a few turns with the pestle to release their juices and flavour. You will be left with a powerful, aromatic paste you can smear on meats and poultry before roasting.
You can also create a complete dish and serve it in the mortar. Try making this guacamole, a perfect crowd-pleaser, just in time for your Super Bowl party. Serve with chips, and you have one-stop-shopping in a primitive vessel. If you don’t have a mortar, then simply combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mash with a fork to achieve a chunky consistency.
Chef Lynda Balslev