Last night I made chorizo per the recipe in Rick Bayless' "Mexico, One
Plate at a Time" cookbook. It calls for you to grind the bay leaves with
mortar and pestle, which I don't own. I tried to do it in the food
processor, even adding the salt from the recipe to act as an abrasive
but it barely worked.
Any other suggestions to get the job done?

Goomba38 wrote:

You can grind them in an electric spice grinder. I make garam masala
(which contains bay leaves) that way.

Ground bay leaves are also good to use with soups such as split pea or bean.

"Goomba38" comcast.net> wrote in message
news:na2dnRR2v5fjiLrVnZ2dnUVZ_rvinZ2d@comcast.com...

It's a pain. My solution; I purchased Ground Bay Leaves at Publix. The
brand name is "Badia".

On Sun, 11 May 2008 11:49:16 -0400, Goomba38 comcast.net>
wrote:

Use a coffee grinder, like a Braun, or Krups. I use one for spices
all the time.

Christine

On Sun, 11 May 2008 11:49:16 -0400, Goomba38 wrote:

You don't own a mortar and pestle? Good grief. We have two.

Call yourself a foodie? For shame!

On Sun 11 May 2008 08:49:16a, Goomba38 told us...

Yes, I use a "whirly blade" type of coffee grinder to grind all my spices.
It quickly reduces almost anything, including bay leaves, to a fine powder.
If you don't have one, it's worth the usually cheap investment. I'm still
using the $15 Oster that I bought in the 1970s.

Other notably had things to grind are whole cloves and allspice berries.
The coffee mill totally pulverizes them.

On Sun 11 May 2008 09:16:41a, ChattyCathy told us...

I have a mortar and pestle, but I wouldn't even consider trying to grind up
bay leaves in it. Too laborious. :-)

ChattyCathy wrote:

Wayne Boatwright wrote:

But..but.. Rick says to do it that way!!
I've never had a recipe call for ground bay leaves before, to tell you
the truth? At least I don't recall one....?

On Sun, 11 May 2008 11:49:16 -0400, Goomba38 comcast.net>
wrote:

Do you have a whirly blade coffee grinder? that would probably be
best. Did the recipe specify fresh or dried? I think that might make a
difference also.

I've gotten in the bad habit of buying mortars and pestles. I have
probably 5 in graduating sizes. Believe it or not I use most of them.
I don't have one as big as Christine's granddaddy of them all though.