"DC." > wrote in message
...
> <snip>
> > Thanks DC, it's great to get an in depth answer such as yours. I have
> > "Traditional Malaysian Cuisine" by Berita Publishing, and a few others
> > whose names elude me at this time and have pounded ingredients in the
past
> > as I bought a large black granite mortar and pestle when I was in
> Malaysia,
> > so I'll give the grinding pounding a try and see how things turn out.
> >
> > Thanks for your help I appreciate it.
> >
> > Scet
>
> If it's by Berita than chances are it's pretty good or 'authentic' enough
&
> there should be a few if not more recipes where you are required to pound.
> If you are feeling lazy, a blender will do the job too but depending on
the
> spices you need to blitz, i sometimes find that it adds too much 'air'
into
> the final paste, resulting in a souffle like paste, which i don't like &
for
> some strange reason doesn't taste as strong & pungent as it should. I
think
> it can 'over-blitz' (if there's such a word) & when frying up the paste,
it
> doesn't give out as much flavour & aroma as it should. I prefer pounding,
> starting with cut up pieces of lemon grass or ginger or galangal etc. &
> working towards the softer spices next.
>
> Quite a few Malaysian & Indonesian restaurants hire 'women folk' from the
> villages to prepare their curry paste or rempah(Malay) or
bambu(Indonesian)
> for them once or twice a week. Some of these are of course secret family
> recipes & is what makes the dish. The restaurant cook just cooks meals
with
> these hand pounded curry paste or spice mixes. This is common practice in
> Asia but recently i found out that even in Holland/The Netherlands with
> it's close connections to Indonesia & it has a sizeable population of
> Indonesians in Amsterdam etc. this practise is still in use as old ladies
> would come in & prepare the week's curry paste for the restauants. Now you
> know why it tastes so good.
>
> DC.
>
>
>Thanks DC.

Scet