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. 

Vanilla Snowflakes

 

This is a pretty cut-out cookie that you can decorate in a snowflake pattern very easily. You can use any cookie cutter and let your creative side come out to play! 

Makes about 3.5 Dozen cookies - it depends what size you cut them. 

Ingredients:

3/4 c. Butter

3/4 c. Sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

2 c. Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar (See P.S.)

P.S. If you don't have Cream of Tartar, you can use 1.5 teaspoons of Baking Powder in lieu of the baking soda & Cream of Tartar

Royal Icing to decorate  (See link below)

https://whats4dinnerbymarie.blogspot.com/2020/12/royal-icing.html

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*

Cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Mix well. Add flour slowly and continue to mix until homogenized. 

The dough will be soft, so refrigerate for an hour before trying to roll it out. After an hour, I rolled out 1/2 of the dough at a time, leaving the other half in the fridge to stay cold. You can gather scraps and re-roll, but give them a little time back in the fridge to stiffen up. 

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness, on a well floured surface.  Dip your cookie cutter into flour before cutting the dough. Place cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet with an inch between. Allow cookies to rest in the fridge for 15 or so before baking. Bake 10-12 minutes, until edges start to brown. 

Cool completely before storing or decorating. 

I started rolling out on parchment, 

but working directly on the counter worked better. 

Just use enough flour. 

The cut out cookies need to rest in the fridge for a time before baking. I stacked them in there on sheets of parchment that I just slid onto the cookie sheet before popping into the oven. 

After baking, I slid the parchment off the cookie sheet and onto the counter to cool. That way you don't have to handle soft cookies before they cool and you can immediately use the cookie sheet again. 

The next day, I decorated with Royal Icing sprinkled with sugar, as well as some colorful sprinkles I have. It was a nice variety of color and textures. 

Sparkly Sanding Sugar

Sparkling sugar and nonpareils.

I had leftover Royal Icing, so I made some little colorful candies to add to the cookie plates I give away. I don't like to waste anything. 

The round button candies were much easier to lift from the parchment than the thin designs. I really liked the snowflakes, though. 

They turned out really cute!

Ready to store before plating out for friends and neighbors. 

The candy buttons.

The thicker designs worked out well. 

The thin ones broke when I tried to lift them off the paper. 

Thai Coconut Chicken Chili

I found this recipe in BH&G magazine. It looked interesting so I thought I'd share it with you.

12 oz. boneless skinless chicken, cut into small cubes
1 large onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1.5 teaspoon chili powder
1.5 teaspoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 can coconut milk
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1 can white cannellini beans, white northern beans
3 medium carrots, shredded
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 green onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil, or 1 teaspoon dried

Fresh basil leaves and/or sliced jalapenos for garnishServe over hot rice.
**********************************

Cut up your raw chicken, and onions. Cook quickly in pot along with salt, pepper, ginger and chili powder.

Once chicken is no longer pink, add flour, mixing in well. Cook one minute longer.

Stir in coconut milk, peanut butter, beans (including juice), carrots, celery, green onion, garlic and chopped basil. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until veggies are tender to your liking. You may add up to a cup of water if it seems too thick for you.

P.S. I upped the amount of spice X2, I also added additional salt and black pepper. It seemed a bit lackluster before the additions. 

Gather your ingredients. I ran the celery and carrots through the food processor to speed things up. The green onions I keep frozen after cutting up a couple pounds of them. I also grated fresh ginger instead of using powder.

All the spices. I prefer to mix up my own chili powder. About equal amounts of cayenne, oregano and cumin. Also here you'll see the salt and black pepper.

Cut-up chicken, onions, ginger and spices into the pot. I poured the spices onto the pot, not onto the meat or onions. With the heat up high, I wait for the smell of the toasting spices to reach my nose before I stir up the pot. Toasting the spices just brings out their aroma. :)

All stirred up. Now, I go start the rice, smash the garlic and open cans of coconut milk and beans, while the chicken is cooking.

Chicken is no longer pink, add the flour. After mixing in thoroughly, cook one more minute before adding more ingredients.

Peanut butter. A bit of a Thai flavor. Not overwhelming at all.

Add coconut milk.

Bring heat up so it starts to boil.

Add beans.

Carrots and Celery.

Green onions and garlic.

Stir it all up well and bring up to boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and gently simmer for 20 minutes. Stir every once in a while, so it doesn't stick to pan bottom and scorch.

Yum! Serve over rice. Very tasty!

Dan Gass (Korean Breaded Pork Cutlet)

This is an Asian Dish. Invented by the Japanese and adopted by the Koreans. This is a well known favorite in Korea. 

Don't try this if you are afraid of garlic! :)

1-2 lbs pork loin, sliced into chops

2 crushed cloves of garlic

1-inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled & crushed to a paste (or look for ginger paste in your local Asian market)

salt

pepper

flour

1 beaten egg for dipping

bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Oil for frying

********************************

Mix together garlic paste and ginger paste.

Score each side of the pork slices (1/8 inch deep) and rub in some of the garlic and ginger paste.

Let stand for 15 minutes to marinade.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dust in flour, dip into egg and dredge in bread crumbs. Fry in hot oil. 

Brown well on both sides. Drain on paper towels as you remove from pan. 

Enjoy!

Smash the garlic, mix with smashed ginger

Trim excess fat from loin, slice pork loin into chops

Score the flat side of chops

Spread ginger/garlic paste between the chops

Rub into meat, allow to sit for 15 minutes

The recipe does call for salt AND pepper. I don't normally add salt before cooking. I just added pepper. You can always salt at the table if you feel it needs it.

Ready to bread chops

Dredge in flour

Dip into egg

Cover in bread crumbs

Fry in hot oil

Brown on both sides. Don't undercook pork.

Serve hot. Enjoy!