Homemade Dijon Mustard

Who could have ever guessed that it would be difficult to find mustard in the grocery stores?!? But here, in France, that's what happened this year. Drought, War, Covid, Supply-chain problems, you name it. But there's no mustard or cooking oils in the grocery stores (except for olive oil and sometimes sunflower oil).  So when I was thinking about what to make for little gifts this year, I thought of this after finding an interesting handful of recipes. So, here's my take on Dijon Mustard. I have to say it's Very tasty! 

I made a lot, for gifts. But this recipe, with amounts listed, will make about a cup. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mustard seeds (I used yellow, but you can find white, yellow, brown or black) 

1/2 cup white vinegar + 1/4 cup water - for soaking

3 Tablespoons white vinegar - separate

2 Tablespoons dry white wine

2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Soak your mustard seeds in 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup cold water. Cover loosely and allow to sit for 24 to 48 hours. 

After soaking, strain your seeds, throw away the liquid. 

In a blender, blend your seeds with the 3 Tablespoons vinegar and white wine. Add salt and continue blending until very smooth. You may have to scrape down the blender sides to keep it in the reach of the blades. Mine got smooth and fine, but it also thickened nicely. Mine is scoopable, not squirtable. If you prefer your mustard thinner, just add a little bit of water at a time. Maybe a teaspoon at a time. 

Once your mustard is finished, allow it to rest in the fridge for a day before using. You will taste it right away, but the flavor will become richer the next day. It's a wonderful thing. So easy. I may never buy mustard again. Next, I'll make yellow mustard. But for now, I have Dijon for a year! 

By the way, it keeps a VERY long time! Years. There's no ingredient in it that spoils. But it's so good, you'll finish it in no time! 

I found my seeds in the bulk spice aisle of the Asian grocery. 

Combine seeds with vinegar and water and allow to soak for a day or two. Longer soaking makes it easier to get a nice smooth grind in the blender. I saw some recipes that didn't soak long, or not at all. I soaked mine for 24 hours. 

The seeds plump nicely and absorb much of the liquid.

Use a very fine strainer to strain out the soaking liquid. 

I had so much that I had to strain it in two batches. 

The seeds absorbed quite a bit. There's not a lot of liquid to throw away.

Not many ingredients; seeds, vinegar, wine and salt. 

The only other thing you might need is a little bit of water 

if you'd like a thinner mustard in the end. 

Adding my premeasured vinegar...

And the white wine.

I added the salt and hit the button!

After 30 seconds, blended a lot, but chunky, not smooth. 

You may like it that way, it's up to you!

A total of about 90 seconds and it's smooth! 

If you only make a single batch, it may come together much faster for you. 

It is thick, but it's smooth. I like it. I'm not going to add any water. 

It's really tasty and has a nice kick to it, like Dijon should. 

Pork Medallions with Sage and Balsamic Vinegar Sauce

A family favorite

1.5 lb. Pork Tenderloin

Flour

Salt

Pepper

2 Tablespoon butter

2 Tablespoon oil

2/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dried Sage

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Dredge pork slices in seasoned flour. Brown in hot butter and oil mixture. It may take a couple of batches to get it all browned. Don't overload the pan, they won't brown. As they brown, remove to plate. When all meat is browned, pour off excess fat. Add vinegar to pan, scraping brown bits into liquid. Reduce to 1/2. Add stock and juice from plate. Boil until reduced to a dark, shiny sauce, about a minute or so. Add Sage. You can pour over pork and serve, or quickly add pork back to pan to warm up.

Serve over hot noodles.

Enjoy!

Gather ingredients

Dredge pork in seasoned flour.

Add to hot pan, with room to breathe.

If you crowd them, they won't brown nicely. 

Turn them as they brown on one side. 

Once they are browned nicely on both sides, remove them from the pan to rest while you make the sauce.

Cover them with foil to keep them warm. 

Add in the broth and vinegar to pan.

Boil the vinegar until it reduces to about half. 

That looks to be about half. Turn off the heat. 

Any juices on the plate can be put back into the vinegar sauce. 

Add the sage to the sauce. Mix well, and it's finished! 

Arrange your pork in an attractive presentation. 

Spoon the sauce over the pork and noodles.

Delicious and tender! A little tangy and just a touch sweet from the vinegar. 

Rotisserie Grilled Chicken

This is a great way to cook in the warmer months. Keep the kitchen cooler.

Whole chicken
spices

A grill with a rotisserie motor
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Rinse your chicken and impale on the rotis bar. Grill on rotisserie for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the internal temperature registers 160F* in the thigh, not touching bone or metal.

If you don't have a grill with a rotis feature, I'm really sorry. :( After having one, I'd never buy another grill without one!! Grills don't last forever, so when yours dies, splurge a teeny bit and get one that has the rotisserie. You'll never regret it!!

For a GREAT selection of spice mixes, check my favorite place... http://www.penzeys.com/

Washed and ready to grill!

Get the hardware in place, but don't screw down the grippers till you center the bird on the grill in front of the rotis burner.

Once I've got the chicken on the grill, I skewer the grippers carefully so that I grip each leg with a stake to hold them as they go around. As it cooks, the joints get loose. If you don't hold the legs up, they'll drop lower as they go along and flop around. You don't want them dragging over the dirty grill bottom. They may also burn as they'd be the thinnest place exposed to the heat. Once nicely skewered.. I fold the wings back, like you would for a Thanksgiving Day turkey. They would also flop around if you didn't secure them. They don't need to be skewered though. Folding them will be sufficient. And yes, those are the chicken livers in the pan under the chicken. I lay them in the pan (where I catch the drippings so they don't yuk up the grill). Those are MINE! Chef's prize. :)

This is my choice of spices today. Penzey's Bicentennial Rub. I mix it up and change the spice mix frequently. This is one of my favorites. Check out their website. I've put the link above in the recipe directions.

Spread it all around as the chicken goes round and round. The chicken is slightly damp from it's earlier bath, so it sticks nicely. No need for oil or butter.

All ready to go. Rotisserie is on high, for those you can adjust. Close the lid and go away for an hour. :) I LIKE this kind of cooking!! Taking a peek after one hour. I also check the temperature. 120 degrees. Needs more time. Aiming for 160F*.

90 minutes. 140 degrees. A little longer...

1 hour 45 minutes. 160 degrees. This was a nice large hen, and still slightly frozen inside. So do check yours after it hits that first hour to see how the temperature is progressing. Going a bit over the 160 degrees really isn't a problem on the rotis. The turning motion keeps the juices in the bird and doesn't allow them to just fall to the pan like in the oven. Better a little over 160 degrees than under.

Remove rotisserie hardware and allow the bird to sit for 5-10 minutes while you get the side dishes on the table. This allows the juices to settle into the meat so they don't just run out at your very first cut. Come, sit, enjoy! Rotisserie chicken with a side of green bans, bread and butter, and Jonathan's special noodles. You'll find the recipe for that on another note. 

Crispy skin all around! What more could you want? 

Duck à l’Orange

Not as difficult as it sounds, just time consuming. Allow 3 hours, minimum total elapsed time.

One 5-6lb duck

S&P

1/4 cup Frozen orange juice concentrate or marmalade

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 Tablespoons Soy sauce

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Thaw duck if frozen. I leave it in the fridge for a couple days on the bottom where it's out of the way.

Preheat oven to 350*

Remove from wrapper and remove the goodies from inside, usually livers, heart, neck and sauce mix. I never use the sauce mix. It's filled with all kinds of extraneous ingredients. Yuk.

Rinse the duck, inside and out. Pull off any extra fat you find. Prick the skin thoroughly with a fork. Place on a rack in a roasting pan, and pour a couple cups of boiling water over it. This help tighten the skin. Let it sit for a minute to cook again. Lift the duck to drain water out of cavity, leaving the water in the pan. Dry the duck, inside and out. S&P inside and out and return to rack, folding neck skin underneath.

Bake for 45 minutes and remove from oven so you can flip the bird, er, I mean, turn the duck over. This way you give all the skin a chance to crisp up. So, at the end of 45 minutes, take the pan out, with your tongs lift the duck up to drain liquid from cavity into pan. Turn over, back side up. Feel free to poke it a bit more with the fork, if you'd like. It helps to release the fat from under the skin. Duck is very fatty, if you want crisp skin, the fat needs to melt away.

Put it back into the oven, bake another 45 minutes.

After the second 45 minutes, take out, flip again, poke again and back in it goes for yet, a third 45 minute baking session.

You now have about 45 minutes. Start your side dishes and get ready to finish the duck. Mix your orange sauce: 1/4 cup OJ concentrate or orange marmalade, 2T soy sauce, 2T butter. Melt in a pan and baste over duck the last 10 minutes, at which time I switch the oven from bake to broil. This just concentrates the cooking to the top, where it'll crisp up the skin and glaze the duck with the orange sauce.

My family doesn't care for stuffing so much. So, I roast without stuffing. You can stuff yours. Just realize that it will add to the baking time and you must check internal stuffing temperature to reach 165F*.

Pull off extra fat.

Poke well with a fork.

Can you see the fork holes?

Don't run out and buy one of these, but if you find a rack that is built with a V shape, it's great for keeping your bird, or meat, from rolling around in the roasting pan.

Pour the boiling water over.

Remove from rack, and dry off nicely.

Salt and Pepper, inside and out.

This is where you practice your massage techniques and no one will whine that it's too rough or too soft. ;)

Really... inside too.

I guess I shoulda put a picture in before this, but you DID remove the goodies, right?? I won't mention names, but someone I love cooked a whole Thanksgiving feast and found the giblet package at carving time. :) Hey, that only happens once! 

Please don't use the orange sauce packet that comes with the bird. For comparison's sake. I've looked at the orange sauce mix that came included with the duck. Ingredients: OJ from concentrate, water, sugar, modified corn starch, dextrose, citric acid, salt, natural flavor (of what? orange?), torula yeast, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate, caramel color, spice, extracts of paprika, onion powder.

Ok, our duck is all massaged and relaxed, warmed up with the boiling water bath and now, time to hit the sauna, er, oven. Shh, when I invited him to dinner he had no idea he WAS dinner!

350* for 45 minutes

First 45 minutes is done.

Drain out liquids.

Flipped over, breast side down. Now, back into the oven for the next 45 minutes.

Second 45 minute baking session complete. Starting to look browned and crispy. :)

Turn the duck back over, breast side up, allowing the juices to drain from the cavity, as you turn it. Feel free to poke some more. I always give extra attention to the area around the legs where there are fatty deposits. Bake in for the last 45 minutes. This is when you start your side dishes. Tonight, we are having French Bread, Wild Rice and Broccoli.

Orange sauce ingredients to melt together.

Sauce ready to baste with.

10 or 15 minutes before the end, I take the duck out and cut it in half. Turn cut side facing down. 

I don't change the temperature, but I change oven from bake to broil. 5 minutes under the broiler and then it's ready to baste with sauce which is just finishing.

Baste with orange sauce. Back under the broiler for 10 minutes. Keep watch, you don't want it to burn.

10 minutes under the broiler. Look how nice and crispy and brown! Baste it again when it comes out. :D

Use a serrated knife or kitchen scissors to cut into quarters. Some people are hungry enough to eat a half. That looks nice to serve. We just don't eat that much.

For a holiday meal, I'd add a nice healthy green salad too. But we've been nibbling dips and veggies all afternoon! :)

Broccoli, wild rice and fresh hot bread to go with. Yum!