Mortar and pestle

Once you've tried a mortar (that's the bowl) and pestle for pounding and grinding, you'll find there's a world of difference between ingredients prepared this way and those whizzed in a food processor.

The mortar and pestle coax out livelier, fresh-tasting flavours and make it easier for you control the texture of the ingredients being ground. The whirling blade of a food processor can kill flavours, and reduce everything to a mush.

Use a mortar and pestle for crushing garlic and shallots, pounding whole spices, and grinding leaves and nuts for thick sauces like pesto.

Materials

Mortars and pestles come in a fascinating choice of sizes and materials. Each cuisine has its own traditions. Africans tend to use a tall wooden mortar and pestle for pounding tough roots and seeds. The Japanese generally favour a shallow ceramic mortar with a wooden pestle for grinding pastes from oily seeds and raw fish or poultry.

There are gigantic stone Thai models big enough to toss a salad in, and flat bottomed metal Indian mortars for bashing tough spices. Many Mexicans like rough and ready stone mortars for grinding and blending sauces. In Britain, cooks and chemists have traditionally used ceramic mortars.

Which you choose depends on what you want to cook. If you go for a ceramic or marble mortar, make sure the inside is slightly roughened, otherwise dry ingredients will skid over the surface.