Summer sizzlers, marinades and Pestle & Mortar

Summer is at our doorstep and with the last Bank Holiday weekend of good weather, gardens and BBQs are ready to please.

What to do with those fresh herbs that are growing in the garden or on the windowsill?

As nice as they are one feels that they need to have a purpose and be put to use...so how about using them for cooking? You can add them to a potato salad or to a green salad... yes, but...how about making something a little more creative, something that makes them gorgeously delicious and un-recognisable... something like a MARINADE.

They are used all the time in Eastern cuisine and they create the most intricate flavours out of simple ingredients like herbs and spices.

All you need is fresh herbs, some spices, a Pestle and Mortar and a recipe or your imagination.



Pestle & Mortar

If you are a novice in making a marinade and using a Pestle & Mortar, here are some very easy recipes to get you started and put you in the mood.

Pesto:
Put a large bunch of basil leaves, 2 tbsp. pine nuts, 2-3 cloves of garlic, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper in the mortar and start crushing them to a pulp with the pestle while slowly adding olive oil.  You want to have a paste that is not too runny and at the same time is loose enough to coat your linguine pasta. When you have the right consistency, add 2-3 tbsp. of  grated parmesan and mixed together (don't bash it with the pestle) mix it gently.
Cook your linguine as directed from the packet and when drained mix the pesto, you might want to add a little olive oil if too sticky.
Eat and enjoy!

Marinade for pork:
Mix together in your Mortar 4 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp. freshly grated ginger and add a tsp. of 5-spices powder. When  you have worked the pestle to make the garlic and ginger and spices into a paste, add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, 2tbsp. of clear honey and 2 tbsp. of sunflower oil.
Put the marinade onto some pork ribs and let it sit for several hours.  Cook on the BBQ. [Recipe from Chef Bill Granger]

Guacamole:
Place a small red onion, finely diced, 1/2 chilli pepper, 1 clove of garlic in your mortar and use the pestle to slowly mash together the ingredients. Add some coriander leaves and 2 ripe avocados.
When these are all amalgamated into a thick paste add 1/2 yellow onion, grated & its juice, the juice of a lime, salt and freshly grated black pepper.  You might also want to add a splash of tabasco sauce.
This is an easy and quick recipe to make and can be served with tortilla chips.

These are only some of the recipes you can make with your Pestle & Mortar. Use the pestle in a circular motion to grind the ingredients to a smooth paste.  The whole process is very soothing and it kind of takes you back to the primitive way of preparing food, or the way it is still produced in some cultures.

I have read that you can also prepare your own chilli paste with a Pestle & Mortar and that it is far better in taste than the mixtures you buy in a tin or jar.

If you don't have a Pestle & Mortar yet, this is easy to remedy. There are a lot of types on the market. I prefer the wood ones, in particular those made with Olive Wood. I like the feel of the wood and the fact that the ingredients and the Pestle & Mortar have all been live, earthy products.
Pestle & Mortar made in Olive Wood are also very cheap to buy and will provide a long lasting addition to your kitchen.

With Father's Day fast approaching (16th June) a Pestle & Mortar could provide the perfect, unusual present that will leave you with money in your pocket to buy food to marinade and put on your BBQ. What a great way to spend Father's Day! 

 Does your Dad already have a Pestle & Mortar, how about a Wine Bottle Holder then?

 

Roman Baths/Hamman/Hammams - Part 1

In my ‘previous’ life I used to be part of the Educational Dept. of the Archaeological office, one of the official bodies associated with the ministry of Arts and Culture in Rome (Italy).
Having studied Fine Arts at Uni and Medieval Art for my MA, I enjoyed the role given which allowed me to see a lot of sites in Rome which were closed to the public and/or open very rarely only to special delegations which needed a guide.  As such I used to research and prepare my talks in various libraries, where - once again - entrance was only allowed to ‘selected’ ones.  Oh, how I enjoyed that!

It was, during those two years that I got to know the Caracalla Bath (Thermae) [Caracalla because this roman emperor took over from his father – emperor Septimius Severus – in the completion of this grandiose opera, he gave it his name]. 



Caracalla Baths, South view

I will dedicate a post to describe the function and sequence of bathing in roman times.  In the meantime I will tell you about my experience of Turkish baths, Hamman and so forth in the XXI century.

Since living in Britain I learned and developed a love for being pampered. 
And when I first visited Istanbul ca. 14 years ago, I studied my guide book to find things to do in the two ½ days off from my tour guide – [I had been told to visit this city only as part of a group as not safe for a woman alone, so I joined a tour organised by The Ramblers Holidays.  I found Istanbul a very safe and friendly city, easy to navigate and would not hesitate to go back on my own]. 

While perusing my guide book I came across a Hamman based in a very old roman building.  I believe the present Hamman occupies the area and perhaps shares part of the old roman baths.
After visiting this 'Turkish bath house' I was hooked. 
This was a magical place to fully indulge and relax.  You entered, paid and would change into no more than a bathing suit and a small piece of cotton cloth wrapped around your waist.

Sarongs

 
Then you entered the Hamman inner sanctum and you found yourself in a semi large room full of steam and light filtering through from the ceiling.  You’d go to the side of the room where taps and small bowls are at the ready for you to douche yourself and take your position on the marble platform at the centre of the room. 
The platform is heated from underneath.  Think of being at the beach, and replace the sand for a warm marble slab and the sun bright light filtering from the ceiling, and a warm steamy air around you.  When you reach the central platform you crawl your way over other ladies and reach the centre. Here you lie down, using your cloth as a towel and relax.  As you are doing so, you take stock of your surroundings and that is when I focused on the provenience of the light.  The domed ceiling is scattered with small round holes which are covered by thick glass, almost like bottle ends.  When is light outside and sunny (as often is) the light filters through the glass and illuminate the room/s.  Through the steamy air you see rays of light cutting the steam and touching a capitel or column, a body being washed, a tap...

(Light filtering in the Hamman - www.hammamguide.com/).

After a while, you are drying and slowly starting to sweat and slowly you move towards the border of the marble platform and eventually you’ll be the next in line to be washed, scrubbed and massaged. The women (in this case) have sort of ‘pillowcases’ full of a local nicely fragranced soap which produces foam that is deposited on your body (have a look at the pictures on this site [http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Turkey/Istanbul_Ili/Istanbul-1837624/Off_the_Beaten_Path-Istanbul-hammam-BR-1.html]  to give you an idea).

The scrubbing is done with hands gloved with sort of loofah and it gets rid of all the dry skin cells on your body (so even if you have just showered, you feel very conscious of how much comes out while scrubbing!), then you get massaged, your muscles are kneaded and you come out a new person. Heaven! 
At the end of the process (you get done front and back) the women take you to the outside edge of the room, and rinse you and give you a shower.  All this is done very gently in a relaxed and sometimes laughing atmosphere and in the end you are clean, relaxed and your skin reminds you of a baby’s bottom for its softness.  As you leave the steamy room you are led to a cool down area, with beds/reclining chairs, where you spend the next ½ hr or so chilling out, half asleep and sipping the wonderful mint tea they are so famous about.

When I first took a Turkish bath I was still working in the City in London and holding an often stressful job, and my first thought was that if they were to transport the Hamman to London I would be a regular frequenter, certainly every Friday after 5pm and possibly on other days too to ease the tension in the muscles! 
Unfortunately the closest thing I found to the Turkish bath in London, was a long way away from the Istanbul ones and did not do the trick.
Ps. for obvious reasons I was not able to take pictures of the inside of the Hamman I visited, hence the links to pictures I could find on the net to give you an idea of what it looks like inside. (You might have to copy + paste the links to open them).