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Mustard Mania
February 21, 2007 | 14 Comments
Mustard is so indispensible to the Indian kitchen, that we take it for granted. The seeds are used to season almost every dish. Mustard leaves are transformed into sarson ka saag and mopped up with buttery corn bread. Mustard oil is the olive oil of eastern and northeastern India.
Bee remembers being offered Jhalmuri by a Calcuttan. “Taste it, it’s just like Bhel“. Looked like it, smelt like it, until it was doused with a generous amount of mustard oil. She honestly doesn’t know what it tasted like. The pungent flavour and aroma of the oil cleared her sinuses, burnt her nasal tract and made her swear never to be tricked thus again. In some parts of India, people smear it on themselves as a mosquito repellent. She now understands why.
Dear fellow Mumbaiites, if you are waylaid by a Calcuttan who tells you Jhalmuri is “like Bhel”, look him/her straight in the eye and say, “No, it’s not”. Jhalmuri is like Bhel only until it is inundated with mustard oil. Then it becomes mean-spirited Bhel on steroids.
Yeah, Bee is a Bhel snob, but she loves Bengalis and is very appreciative of the innovative use of mustard in their preparations. In her carnivorous days, she would have her fill of mustard-laced hilsa at her friend’s home.
Madhur Jaffrey best describes the ‘Jekyll and Hyde characteristics’ of mustard oil and mustard seeds that the cuisine of north-eastern India brings out so well.
If whole mustard seeds are thrown into hot oil and allowed to pop, they turn nuttily sweet; if they are ground to a paste as many Bengali recipes require, they develop a delicious, nose-tingling pungency. Mustard oil is sharp when used raw; it turns docile and sweet if it is heated. Many Bengali dishes require mustard seeds to do triple duty-as an oil, as a popped, nutty seed, and as a fiery seed paste as well.
We can understand why this lovely Bengali cherishes her mustard so much.
In Europe and America, it is used in a different form, largely as a condiment. The wide variety ranges from the mild American ball-park type to the industrial strength Meaux made with unhusked black seeds, that have the most pungent flavour. We prefer Dijon, which is somewhere in between.
We love
Mustard Maple Salad Dressing
5 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons creamy Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.
Shake, shake shake, pour into a bottle, squirt over whatever you’re eating.
Our fav salad dressing. Thick, creamy, very low in fat.
We ran out of mustard one day, and Rae came to the rescue. We had all the ingredients her recipe called for, and it was PERFECT. It had just the right consistency, and balance of hot and tart.
It’s so easy to make great mustard at home, that it’s silly to buy it from the store. Moreover, you can tweak it to add new flavour combinations.
We use part brown and part yellow mustard seeds as she recommends. The brown seeds alone make for a super pungent mustard. The yellow seeds alone are not pungent enough. If your mustard is too hot, nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds. It mellows it down.
RECIPE
Homemade Dijon(ish) Mustard
3 tbsps. brown mustard seeds and 2.5 tablespoons skinned yellow mustard seeds.
1/3 cup white wine/rice wine/vermouth (grape/apple juice may work as well)
1/3 cup vinegar (white wine/rice/apple cider vinegar, basically whatever is at hand)
¾ tsp. salt
¼ tsp pepper
Optional:
1 minced shallot (for a longer shelf life, ¼ tsp onion powder)
Any spices or herbs you like
(flavouring ideas here and here.)
Soak this overnight. Blend it to a smooth paste. In the beginning, it may appear very soupy. Keep blending. It will come together into a thick, creamy mass. We promise.
Picture Perfect
Mustard blooms herald spring in Bangladesh
Storm approaching a Mustard Field in Oregon
Filed Under: condiment, homemade-mustard, HOW TO, maple-mustard-dressing, mustard, mustard-oil, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes
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14 Comments
Apart from the things you mentioned, people in Andhra use mustard in powder form for pickles. Example, Andhra’s famous avakaya. Infact ava represents the mustard part used in the pickle.
duh…. of course!!! how could we forget pickling? that’s precisely why we had split yellow mustard in our pantry – for carrot pickle. thanks for pointing that out. – bee
Ha ha, so you had your share of “Jhal Muri”
How I miss that. The ones at home are never the same
Liked your dressing, I add honey but will try maple syrup now
I love mustard. The kind that is so hot you shit your pants when the jar opens. just the thought of that makes me want to eat some bratwurst right now.
[...] 16 oz (453 g) extra firm tofu 1/8 cup soy sauce (we use low sodium tamari) 1 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard 2 Tbsp sweet/sour chili-garlic sauce 1 Tbsp dark sesame [...]
[...] sauce: Mix in 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tsp. Dijon-style mustard, 1 tsp maple syrup, cracked black [...]
These brown and yellow mustard seeds are the same ones which you get in indian spice sections right??
yeah, the ones we use to make achaars. – b.
Just found your site courtsey of Nupur of One Hot Stove…
Maharashtrians use ground mustard in their pickles. Its one of the key ingredients along with oil and red chilli powder
[...] with low-fat dressing of choice. We like maple-mustard, lemon, honey salt and pepper or seasoned rice vinegar with a pinch each of salt, pepper and [...]
[...] homemade Dijon-style mustard if you can. It tastes WAYYYYY better than store-bought, and is so very easy to [...]
They all look good, and look foward to cheese sandwiches with raw onion and one of these mustards.
[...] Tossed with mustard-maple dressing. [...]
[...] Greens, Jahni Alu Posta) 4. As a pungent paste, especially in Eastern India, quite like this Homemade Dijon-style Mustard 5. Mustard Greens are popular in Northern and Eastern India (see Chokha – Pesto, [...]
[...] used 1 tbsp roasted garlic 1 tbsp white miso 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp homemade Dijon mustard 2 tsp paprika 1 tbsp chopped sun-dried [...]
[...] Blend together artichoke hearts (drained) a couple of peppered goat cheese discs some heavy cream (or milk) some garlic gloves fished out of the green olive antipasto jar a nice dollop of home-made Dijon mustard [...]