Well, we have all heard how hard it is to season cast iron. I telling you this , seasoning the rustiest old piece of cruddy cast iron is a breeze compared to what I have just seasoned.
Being a native Texan I love to cook and eat Tex-Mex and Mexican food. I have the Cast Iron Griddles that work for the Comal and other cast iron to cook the Tex-Mex/Mexican dishes. But one thing was missing, a Molcajete with a Tejolote or a Mexican mortar and pestle. It has been used for over 5,000 years by the Mayan and Aztec natives to make such great things as Mole, Salsa, grind herbs/spices and Guacamole.So I bought one from Gourmet Sleuth.
Unlike a regular mortar and pestle the molcajete is made from basalt or lava rock and needs to be cleaned and seasoned. Now cleaning cast iron using a lye bath and electro tank are a breeze. to clean the molcajete you start by soaking it in warm water for about 12 hours. then you scrub it with a brush NO SOAPS. After that you let it dry a bit and then thrown in some white rice and grind it with the tejolote until you have rice flour. it will have a gray appearance, you then throw that away. Repeat this until the rice powder is white. Depending on how porous the stone is it can take 5 plus times at 15 to 20 minutes each time get the white powder. You're cleaning out the loose sand and stone from the basalt.
After the cleaning you season it. by grinding Garlic, Rock Salt, and Cumin Seeds into a paste smearing it in the bowl. you let this sit for 1hours or overbite scape it out and wash the molcajete the letting it air dry.
So anytime you hear of someone complaining about having to season Cast Iron just tell them to get a molcajete.
