MORTAR AND PESTLE AND GROUNDNUT SAUCE My mother's mortar was the most beautifully crafted vessel in my view. Made of good wood and silky smooth on the inside. So perfect on the outside, with an equally perfect waist. It was just the right weight just like its owner! The pestle was similar in character, Tall and slender with a perfect waist for my hand to get a good grip. This was the perfect partner to the mortar.Also of the same wood and of the same smooth finish. How I loved my mother's mortar and pestle!
She measured the clean groundnuts into the mortar and invited me to pound them soft for lunch sauce."Pound them into flour ", she ordered. After a while she checked and exclaimed, "You are supposed to pound them with the pestle in the mortar, not with the teeth in your mouth"! Shamefaced, I resumed the pounding. My mother's voice again, "Pound to a hundred, then finish"! I started one, two, three...35 and a break, 36,37,38....75 and a break.... 76,77 78...one hundred! Then I checked. To my horror the groundnuts had turned not into flour but into paste! Desperately, I tried to fluff the paste into flour using my hand. I was on the brink of tears when I heard my mother's voice! Is the groundnut sauce ready for the fire"? She asked walking quickly towards me and the mortar and pestle! She reached us and looked inside the mortar. I jumped up ready to run. "Well done! ". Her voice sounded far away although she was standing right next to me".
"But they have not turned into flour! ", I volunteered. She smiled, "I know! In the mortar the groundnut flour sticks to the bottom as a paste. This is how you know the sauce is ready! ". Mortar and pestle and groundnut sauce.
Beautiful memories of my mother and me. Mega Katonda Afirika,
WIFE OF GOD.
February, 2015. Sent from Yah,oo Mail on Android | 
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