Bobo Bonobo wrote:
> Goomba38 wrote:
> > Bobo Bonobo wrote:
> > > Any international food marget should have ground (molido) bay leaves
> > > in the Mexican section. �I use them for pasta sauce. �I was upset when
> > > Penzey's quit carrying the ground bay leaves.
>
> > > --Bryan
>
> > I've always used whole in my tomato sauces, soups and the like, and pick
> > out the leaves before serving. I like to be able to choose the size of
> > the leaf to the use. How much ground do you reckon equals a good sized leaf?
>
> I don't know, but what I do know is that it takes hours to get a
> reasonable amount of flavor out of the whole leaves. �I just started
> using the powdered a few years ago. �So much easier. �
>
> Often, I make a sauce with only tomato paste, water and bay
> leaf. �Then I simmer well-browned meatballs in it.

What... no garlic and oregano... and I think it's illegal to make that
without grape jelly.

Goomba38 > wrote:

> Last night I made chorizo per the recipe in Rick Bayless' "Mexico, One
> Plate at a Time" cookbook. It calls for you to grind the bay leaves with
> mortar and pestle, which I don't own. I tried to do it in the food
> processor, even adding the salt from the recipe to act as an abrasive
> but it barely worked.
> Any other suggestions to get the job done?

You really need to get a small coffee grinder. I don't know how you
managed without either this long.

-sw

Sqwertz wrote:
> Goomba38 > wrote:
>
>> Last night I made chorizo per the recipe in Rick Bayless' "Mexico, One
>> Plate at a Time" cookbook. It calls for you to grind the bay leaves with
>> mortar and pestle, which I don't own. I tried to do it in the food
>> processor, even adding the salt from the recipe to act as an abrasive
>> but it barely worked.
>> Any other suggestions to get the job done?
>
> You really need to get a small coffee grinder. I don't know how you
> managed without either this long.
>
> -sw

LOL, neither do I now!? I always put whole spices in when I could, and
own the basics ground too, but bay leaves are NOT commonly called for in
many recipes so it has never been an issue before. I look forward to
discovering all I can use my newly ordered mortar and pestle for. I
decided to go low-tech to start with though.

Goomba38 > wrote:

> LOL, neither do I now!? I always put whole spices in when I could, and
> own the basics ground too, but bay leaves are NOT commonly called for in
> many recipes so it has never been an issue before. I look forward to
> discovering all I can use my newly ordered mortar and pestle for. I
> decided to go low-tech to start with though.

I use my coffee grinder 5x more than my M&P. The MP I use for small
amounts of cumin and wet/oily stuff, but there are a lot of whole
spices that a M&P won't be able to grind correctly (caraway,
allspice, eg).

-sw

On 2008-05-13, Sqwertz > wrote:
> spices that a M&P won't be able to grind correctly (caraway,
> allspice, eg).

That's cuz you got wussy M&P. Mere child's play for Thai granite!

nb

notbob > wrote:

> On 2008-05-13, Sqwertz > wrote:
>> spices that a M&P won't be able to grind correctly (caraway,
>> allspice, eg).
>
> That's cuz you got wussy M&P. Mere child's play for Thai granite!

I have a perfectly good 8x8 M&P. The coffee grinder works better
for almost all the dry spices.

-sw

Sqwertz > wrote:

> I have a perfectly good 8x8 M&P. The coffee grinder works better
> for almost all the dry spices.

I left out the word 'granite' just to see if I could provoke another
He-Man response out of you.

-sw

On 2008-05-13, Sqwertz > wrote:

> I left out the word 'granite' just to see if I could provoke another
> He-Man response out of you.

Must be operator error.

nb

"Steve Pope" > wrote in message
...
> weedhopper > wrote:
>
>>"Goomba38" > wrote in message
>
>>> sf wrote:
>
>>>> I wasn't talking about heat, just the pure *amount* for only 1.5
>>>> pounds of meat.
>
>>> well, add the other half pound of fat too.
>>> It works. What can I say?
>>> (and unlike many commercial chorizo...it doesn't contain salivary and
>>> lymph glands. Ugh.)
>
>>That's what gives it the good flavor.
>
> Yeah! Well, partly. The S-glands and L-nodes give it a low
> melting point, so you get chorizo fluid that can innundate
> ground pork or beef muscle meat in a particularly fine way ...
> but what it's really doing is it's a vehicle for carrying
> that ground spice mix all through the sausage. On top of
> any glandular flavor. The total effect is what's wonderful.
>

Steve

What is "chorizo fluid" and "glandular flavor"?