h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can confirm there has been fermentation

Well, that could have gone better

The recipe suggests a very runny batter because it says to make the pancakes as thin as possible by pouring out any excess batter from the pan (tough to do if you're using a griddle, but I suppose in that case you could just spread it more thinly, like a dosa).

Anyway, the first one seemed a little thick so I added some water to the batter before making the second. That was a total loss - it stuck to the pan (cast iron) and fell to bits, so I added some wholemeal flour to what was left of the batter and make them smaller and thicker.

That worked a bit better, but I can't taste the fenugreek at all. If I decide to make them again, and it's a big faff for a small return so that seems unlikely, I'll add some garam masala, and more than the half-teaspoon of spice in this recipe.

perhaps grinding is the way to go, in a pestle and mortar?

I think you're right, and that's something I've been thinking about getting, when I have the wedge to spend on something like that. I use a coffee grinder for grinding my curry spices at the moment, but a mortar and pestle gives a different kind of grind.

Speaking of mortars and pestles...
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27382480

I did actually buy one from Habitat, many many years ago. Mid 70s. We had a pretty big Habitat in the town where I grew up and I bought quite a few things there. I had a friend at school whose parents, at the time, were awfully Habitat doncha know. Ten years earlier I reckon they'd have been terribly House and Garden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHuc_Nutv-s

I aspired to the Habitat thing for a year or two, after seeing their house and the things in it. As well as the mortar and pestle (which I don't think I ever actually used - apparently I liked the idea of being a person who owns a mortar and pestle rather than a person who uses a mortar and pestle), I bought a Habitat enamel coffee pot, this sort of thing http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0036/6642/products/red_enamelteapot_grande.jpg?v=1348567951 and started buying ground coffee and coffee filters.

Oh, now I remember - I did use the mortar and pestle. To try and grind coffee beans. It didn't work

I know I must have pushed a bit more of my money into Conran's bank account, but apart from some straw matting, I can't recall what else I bought there.

Tonight I 'ave mostly been drinkin' Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence.

I left this one in the cellar far too long. When it's fresh this beer is almost like drinking a chocolate milk shake, but the chocolate flavour is virtually extinct now. And it's given me a belly ache.

I quite liked the Habitat 70s look - clean lines for the most part.
We have a couple of pestles and mortars (do you always say it the other way round? which one of us is the oddity here?)

we use one for making pesto, one for spices and there is another smaller one but I can't remember ever having used it. (and when I say "we" I mean, of course, since I rarely cook since I started at the Open Uni)

I've only ever heard them called mortars and pestles

I honestly can't remember any more whether I've always said mortar and pestle or pestle and mortar. Living in an English-speaking country with so many different words and phrases for things for as long as I have can make you forget how you say even words and phrases that might be the same

Let's call it a mestle and porter. Or should that be porter and mestle?

Any road up. I would like to get one at some point, perhaps one of those, I think they're Japanese-style, ones with the ridges on the inside. I use the same coffee grinder I grind spices with to make garlic and ginger (ginger and garlic? ) paste which goes into a lot of curries, and it really doesn't work at all well. Those ridges would do a much better job I think.

Which is which? Is the mortar "female" and the pestle "male"? I've never given it much thought before. They're always together. You never hear of someone using just a pestle.


I do now know about suribachi and surikogi though.

http://projectfidgetyfingers.blogspot.com/2012/08/our-mini-japanese-mortar-and-pestle.html

Aye, that's the one. Hmm, do I know the word 'suribachi' from somewhere other than that? Or am I thinking of another, similar word... what's that song... oh yeah, Surabaya Johnny.

I can think of a few people I'd like to, er, inflluence with a pestle. A mortar, not so much.

Tonight I 'ave mostly been drinkin' Orval.

It's a beer that's supposed to be a whole better with a few years on it so I stashed a couple of bottles away in 2012. I might have drunk them too early. There are some beers that are good fresh, not so good after a few years, then great after a few years more.

Got me drunk though, and still tasted pretty good

The only mortar and pestle I've ever had is a lava rock one from Mexico, a molcajete. It comes in handy sometimes, but I seldom use it for anything other than grinding chili peppers and cumin.

That's certainly what I'd use it for most. Grinding gives a better texture - a coffee grinder doesn't really grind, it cuts, which is why real coffee purists use a burr grinder, and which is what you'll find in most restaurants and coffee shops.

I'd also quite like a... I have no idea what they're called so bear with me, and they seem to be all over the world so they probably have a hundred different names.

It's a flat stone, slightly hollowed either by use or design, or probably both, sometimes square sometimes circular, with another stone, sort of semi-circular and maybe 2" or so thick, which you use to grind things with on the flat stone - either wet or dry. I know there's something like it in Mexico and most other Latin American countries, and I know there's something like it in India, where I've seen it used for grinding spices, and also for turning minced meat into, well, almost a paste, from which meatballs and flat patties are made and then deep fried.

This link should take you to one of these being used for that purpose http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtv2yUnLAYU#t=38m20s If it doesn't you can scroll forward to 38m 20s.

Metate, I think? With an accent over either the a or the second e--3 syllable word, anyway.

Yep, it's a metate. I would like one myself someday.

Ah, that's the thing

I wonder if I could get one from one of the local Mexican food shops... without looking to much like a hipster. I could really use a tortilla press too... for making chapatis and roti

It seems unlikely that either item will be difficult to locate there. Let your fingers do the walking.

I know the local Indian grocer has tortilla presses, and maybe they have a metate too. I'll investigate next time I'm there.