Ok friends, here's one of our biggest family secrets - my grandmother's molcajete has magical powers. Now you might be thinking, it's little late and maybe Molé Mama has had a few too many peppers tonight, but in all seriousness there is magic in our volcanic mortar and pestle. And I'll bet that some of you have magical molcajetes too!
Our family molcajete immigrated from Mexico to California illegally with my Grandma Magdalena in the early 1920s. She and my mother made their living by cooking for migrant farm workers and used our molcajete to prepare countless salsas, guacamoles, rubs and molés. Their meals were legendary.
I have countless cousins, friends and other family members that will tell you that my mother and grandmother were the best cooks ever. They are also convinced that the magic is in our molcajete, because none of them have ever been able to successfully duplicate their recipes. Lucky for me, my mother gave this treasure to me about 20 years ago.
I have some pretty interesting high tech gadgets in my kitchen, but if one of recipes needs some fresh garlic or ground spices, I'm pulling out the molcajete and adding some old fashioned magic! My only regret is that my molcajete doesn't have any voice recording capabilities. What I wouldn't give to have some old recordings of my grandma and mother cooking together :)!
So friends, if you don't have one, go out and buy your molcajete today and start adding some magic to your cooking!
And check out my crowd pleasing queso con fundido & rajas molcajete recipe!
Big hugs,
Molé Mama