Infatuations

I have the occasional food obsession. Crushes, really. I'll suddenly become enamoured with a flavor or ingredient and I'll use it or eat it as often as possible. One week it will be parsnips. Later it's basil, hot sauce, duck eggs, gruyère.

Eventually the phase passes and I move on to the next thing.

Currently the infatuation is mustard. I'm in love with the stuff. Tangy, sweet, hot, seeded, whatever you've got. I can't eat enough of it. I smear it on roasted meats, whisk it into salad dressings, dollop it into my stews, slap it on my sandwiches, and I've been known to lick the utensil before discarding it.

Interestingly, while closely related, the three types of mustard seeds yellow, brown, and black, are native to North Africa, the Himalaya, and the Andes, respectively. They have been used as a spice and a source of oil in all corners of the world for millennia. We can thank the Romans (those pesky Romans) for mustard as we know it. They mixed ground yellow mustard seeds with grape juice or wine to form a condiment that would have tasted something like hot English mustard.

The heat in mustard is formed when the ground seeds are mixed with a liquid, and it is inversely related to the temperature of the liquid. In other words, hot mustard is made with cold water, medium mustard is made with hot water, and mild mustard is often cooked to remove any traces of heat.

I am not alone in my mustard-lust. Of such importance was mustard to the Europeans in the 17th and 18th centuries, the wealthy often employed someone to do nothing but make the house mustard. Hmmm.... Anybody want a job?

I've been working on this one for a while, and I have a fridge-full of failed attempts to show for it. Mustard seeds are quite bitter, and it took me some time to come up with a recipe that balanced that bitterness without completely obliterating it. For the same reason, I didn't use any sweetener (sugar, honey). The end result is exactly the type of mustard I like to eat: mild, tangy, rich, not perfectly smooth, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. It's something like Dijon, but since Dijon is traditionally made with brown seeds and verjuice, I won't call it that. Any name suggestions?



50g yellow mustard seeds
200ml white wine
200ml cider vinegar
1 ½ tsp salt
1 lg eshallot, fine dice
1 clove garlic, cracked
1 bay leaf
1 allspice berry (pimento), cracked
5 black peppercorns, cracked

Bring all the ingredients, except the mustard seeds, to a boil, reduce heat to the barest of simmers and cook for 20 min. Strain, squeezing out the solids and reserving the liquid. You should be left with less than half the liquid you started with.

Meanwhile, grind the mustard seeds in a mortar and pestal or a spice grinder until very fine. Don't worry if you can't get it as fine as flour, a few chunks add texture.

In a small pot combine the ground seeds and the liquid. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent sticking, until a thick paste has formed. Place in a small jar or a mustard pot and leave at room temperature overnight. Refrigerate at least a week before eating.

You will find that when cooking, the mustard will have a strongly bitter flavor. Don't worry, this drops away with a bit of age.