Mustard

One of our regular weekend habits is having lunch out at least one of the 2 days. It has almost become a chore to decide where to go since we have been to so many of the amazing restaurants in Portland. We now tend to go to many of the same places over and over. Last weekend we thought we would try a new brew pub that opened recently. Portland has the most brew pubs per capita than anywhere in the United States, which is great for me since I love beer, micro brews especially and I homebrew. So of course, a new brew pub was a no brainer. But, after driving to the other side of town and finally finding it, it was not even close to what we expected. The food was an after thought and the pub looked like the Goodwill store dropped off all their furniture. And, for me, the worst part was the incense that was burning..how could you even enjoy your beer or food with that overwhelming smell. So, we left and thought about where else we should go.

We ended up going to a great little restaurant called Pause. She had a cuban sandwich and along with it was a great tasting aioli mustard. Catherine was so excited and liked it so much that she was using her finger to scrape out the mustard and then licked her finger clean. Just eating finger scoops of the mustard. I am sure she would be devastated to know that I just told you that. Hmmm.

At the same time I was having a housemade sausage with housemade sauerkraut with bacon in it and what was on the side but a very yummy whole grain German style mustard. While I did not use my fingers, I scooped all the mustard out of the ramekin, leaving it clean.

It was odd, this lust over mustard, since I had just been thinking about making mustard and giving it away as gifts during holiday parties. Everyone likes homemade gifts, especially food.

Mustard is really easy to make and far superior to those you buy in the groceries.

Whole Grain and Roasted Garlic Mustard

adapted from Eating Well

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups whole yellow mustard seeds
• 3/4 cup whole brown mustard seeds
• 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 head garlic
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup blue agave (or use 1/2 cup of either syrup or agave)
• 2 tablespoons salt

Preparation

1. Combine yellow and brown mustard seeds, vinegar and 1 1/2 cups water in a large bowl; cover and let stand at room temperature until the liquid is mostly absorbed, about 6 hours.
2. About an hour before you’re ready to make mustard, preheat oven to 400°F. Rub off the excess papery skin from garlic without separating the cloves. Slice the tip off the head, exposing the cloves. Place the garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle with oil and wrap into a package. Place the package directly on the oven rack and roast until the garlic is very soft, 40 minutes to 1 hour.
3. When the garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze half of the cloves out of their skins into a blender. Add half of the mustard seed mixture and pulse, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary and adding water by the tablespoon as needed to facilitate the blending, until some of the seeds are coarsely chopped and the mixture looks like grainy mustard. Transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with the remaining roasted garlic and mustard mixture and add to the bowl. Stir in syrup, agave or both and salt.
4. Spoon the mustard into airtight containers and refrigerate.
5. Refrigerate in airtight containers for up to 1 month (it will not last this long).