Gettin' My Mojo ready (or my Molcajete Seasoned)

 Before using a molcajete (a mortar and pestle made out of volcanic lava rock), you have to season it to avoid grit, rocks, dirt, and stones from mixing with your salsas and getting into your mouth. There are many ways to do this, as I found out when I googled  "How to Season a Molcajete".  This is the way I did it, which combined the instructions which came with it, AND some tidbits I gleaned from google.

 First off... you SOAK completely covered in warm clear water for several hours. Some say 24 hours, some say 12 hours, some say 2 hours.... I did mine for about 6 hours. Then you turn it upside down on a dish rack and let it air dry for several hours. It may look dry on the outside, but being lava, it has absorbed a lot of water, so it is probably still wet inside the rock. Let it sit overnight to dry. Unless it's humid where you are, then it may take longer. Whatever you do... do NOT EVER use soap or any cleaning product on your molcajete. ONLY hot water and brushing.

 After soaking, and drying, its time to grind some rice. Put about a 1/4 cup of rice in the bottom and about a 1/8 teaspoon water. Grind this until your rice no longer resembles rice... it looks like flour. It takes a good while... at the very least 20 minutes. More likely longer. Dump the rice in the garbage, and add more. Do it again. And again. And again. When your arm starts hurting... wait and do it all over again the next day. Be sure to brush the bowl out with a dry brush after each time. I used both long grain rice, and then switched to Jasmine rice (it smelled nicer). I did this about 8 times. Do it until the rice is not grayish after you turn it to flour.

 Then buy some rock salt (see box below). Also known as "ice cream salt". I found it with the other salt in the spice section. Crush this until it is the consistency of regular table salt. Very fine. Dump the salt and do it again. And again. And again... and --- well, you get the idea. Do it until there are no gray pieces in the salt. It actually took me about 8 times.

Be prepared when you dump it in the garbage that you will inhale some and get a very salty taste in your mouth. Blech. Don't add water to the salt, by the way.

 Once that is done, rinse it in very hot water and let dry completely. Then comes the fun part. (yeah, the other parts were not so fun... more like work..)  Take 3 cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of salt, (regular table salt) a teaspoon of cumin seeds, and a teaspoon of black pepper corns and grind them up into a paste. Let this sit for 24 hours. If you don't want your house and your things to smell like garlic, put tin foil over the molcajete. It worked great.

Notice the molcajete is sitting on a dish towel? Be sure you put towels or some kind of protection under it every time you use it. (starting with grinding the rice), because it will scratch your counter top, table, or whatever it sits on. Trust me on this.

After the garlic has set for 24 hours, rinse the molcajete and scrub with a brush then let dry.

You will have to wait until next time for my first attempt at making salsa in the molcajete!  Ok, actually it will be the THIRD time... I forgot to take pictures of the other two.  But can we say "Ay, muy bueno!"   Yes we can!!