Plan B Forum

There was a recipe for something called "Country Captain" in the NY Times for Feb 16 '22. Seems to be a traditional Southern USA dish that is described as a Dixie derivative of Chicken Curry by way of British Empire and the Caribbean. Re-enterpreted by Ligaya Mishan. It looks interesting and within my kitchen skills.

It calls for a paste of fresh ginger and garlic, made with a mortar and pestle. Or it can be approximated by chopping them both up very fine, or possibly buying it at your neighborhood Indian grocery. I do have such a tool in the right size, Marble, left over from my days in a chemistry lab. I remember the elaborate acid wash after using to prevent cross contamination.

I no longer have access to things like hyper-pure nitric acid. If I do this, how can I wash out any remnant of the garlic?

thanks, snailgate

It'll probably just work its way through you

I hope you were not using nitric acid to clean your marble mortar.


CaCO3 + 2HNO3 ==> Ca(NO3)2 + CO2 + H2O


It's more likely that your old chem lab mortar is agate not marble. Agate and dilute acid should be OK. Lemon juice works fine.

Just use a food processor or small coffee/spice grinder. You'll get a better result with a lot less hassle.

The motor and apostle is actually less hassle for me than my small coffee grinder and I don't care for garlic flavor coffee.

The auto spell correct here was a delightful mis-adventure and I just could not change it to mortar and pestle.

snailgate

You can likely find a pre-made ginger garlic paste in the Asian section of your local big grocery store, without trying to find an Asian market. Asian food is so mainstream now most big grocery stores have a decent sized section of the various commonly used components. And you could definitely order a jar from multiple places online.