Jamie Oliver talks you through using a pestle and mortar

okay pestle and mortars it’s one of the
most important kitchen gadgets that you
can get why because it’s going to give
you mega mega flavor if you haven’t got
one
then you seriously need to ask why now
this is the oldest kitchen gadget in the
world obviously it comes from two rocks
stone on stone that’s where the first
early wheat was made from the bread and
all that sort of stuff and of course we
can use it for many many things that
will make our life much much tastier so
from spices to dressings to flavored
oils to pesto’s to marinade this so much
you can do so I’m going to give you a
quick lesson and how to use it I know it
sounds a little bit patronizing and all
that sort of stuff but everyone just
thinks it’s about cranking it in right
you got two methods right you’ve got
bashing and it’s as simple as bashing
right and then what I would suggest is
for you to get in the knack of putting
your hand over the pestle more to kind
of protect the ricochets and stuff like
that in the hands so that’s a big
important thing and also you can put a
cloth around it if you want to now
really stop it
so bashing and then you got muddling and
that’s another bit and often you see
people they’ve got them but they’re not
using them right so the muddling bit is
good for gently crushing things and
taking it finer and finer but also if
you’re making a pesto or a mayonnaise or
a sauce or salsa as you’re adding that
olive oil you can just keep an eye on
the consistency there you go there you
go done so there you go bashing and
muddling right I’m going to show you
three quick things to do with it so
we’ve got a few spices here we’ve got
peppercorns coriander seeds salt and
cumin you know that’s just a couple of
little herbs of which could be any kind
of dry rub for a roast or grilled bit of
meat or a base for a curry but you can
see I haven’t just gone in there and
started smashing it I’ve muddled it
first right and that kind of takes the
worst of it out you can see that’s
broken it up to a point then we go into
the Bashi
and you know the idea of this I’m just
going to pour some of this onto the
plate you know you can kind of have a
coarse grind like that and then if we go
a little bit more you’ve got a slightly
finer grind there and then a mixture of
muddling and banging will really take
this to a sort of almost like a powder
consistency so that’s kind of what you
can do with spices whether it’s the base
of a curry or a rub for a beautiful
barbecue and there we go spices second
one you could use this for a dressing or
a flavored oil which is brilliant this
basil goes in it’s not going to go
anywhere so I can just hold it kind of
want to bash that sort of colorfully
color out so it literally in ten seconds
and you know what a kitchen should be
full of those sounds you know I mean
that is normal that is what it’s all
about you know you might think god
there’s like ten leaves of basil there
but just by bashing up those ten leaves
of basil you can smell that 20 foot away
and if you can be bothered you know once
you turn that into a little paste olive
oil goes in right and you’ll have the
most incredible flavored oil right
almost like chlorophyll look at that and
if you put a little balsamic in there
fantastic salad dressing you know little
squeeze of lemon put that over any
grilled white meats or fish absolutely
beautiful
right so there you go a basil flavored
oil that will turn on every day boring
bit of grilled meat or roasted fish into
something special and you can tell by
looking at it you’re gonna get mega
flavor now the last one is a marinade
acid oil herb and garlic take the lemon
zest from a lemon just two or three
little slices like that will make
dramatic difference piece of rosemary
hot tap five seconds off with the
rosemary like that around it
you get the oils out the lemon zest the
oils out the rosemary get some garlic
cloves
don’t even bother peeling them olive oil
that’s going to amplify and exaggerate
the flavor so you can really get it
around a leg of lamb fish whole fish
fish bullets you know chicken breasts
whole chicken you name it and there you
go a really good tasty marinade and
whatever you put that on would be
amazing and if you wanted to add just a
little bit of lemon juice absolutely no
problem there as well for the marinade
so there you go three quick things to do
with pestle and mortar bashing muddling
and then you know that is really the tip
of the iceberg but remember the bashing
and the muddling and you know there’s
many many things you can do with this
but one thing is for sure if you know
how to use a pestle and mortar and
you’ve got one your flavour goes up
dramatically
straight away good luck