Spicy Stout Mustard

A mustard grows in Brooklyn.I have to admit it.  The Can Jam is creating a monster.  Slowly, for sure, but without question.  I'm increasingly on the look out for things I can put in a jar or things I can make myself and put up to keep the pantry plentiful.  I'm stockpiling recipes faster than I can stockpile the end products, but I'm definitely excited about these new projects. 

This time, I thought I'd try my hand at mustard.  Frankly, it's shockingly easy.  Easier if your food processor doesn't decide to malfunction at the crucial moment. 

I found a recipe for Spicy Stout Mustard at Pictures and Pancakes that I've been holding onto for while.  March seemed like a great time to make it because even though it is a perfect blend of fall and winter flavors, we've got just a touch of winter left and, of course, this is the season of drinking stout.

I think this recipe is very customizable, although I did follow it to the letter since it was my first go.  Because of the technical issues, I made more of a whole-grain mustard than the combination that this recipe intends, but the texture definitely gives it charm.  This mustard has rich, warm spiciness from the cloves and cinnamon with a good kick from the mustard seeds.

Spicy Stout Mustard

makes 3 1/2 cups

• 1 12 oz bottle Guinness Extra Stout
• 10 oz brown mustard seeds
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbs honey
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp turmeric

1. Combine all ingredients in a stainless steel or other nonreactive mixing bowl.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours until the mustard seeds have absorbed .  (I did a full two days and recommend it)
3. For a thicker mustard, pour off some of the remaining liquid. 
4. For a smooth mustard, transfer to a food processor and puree until desired consistency. 
5. Transfer to jars and refrigerate for up to 6 months.

March Can Jam: Alliums

This month, the ingredient for the Tigress Can Jam is Alliums! Garlic and onions count among my favorite food items, so I couldn't be more excited.  I took a chance this month and made two recipes to fill up the larder.  I could have made a hundred and may still try.  I'd love to pickle garlic and I certainly was jealous of all the can jammers out there with fresh garlic or green garlic or garlic scapes, so I'm going to keep my eyes open and will be capturing loads more alliums in jars in the near future. 

For my first trick, I started simple with loads of beautiful red onions that I picked up at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market.  The onions were so pretty that I didn't want to do much with them, but simmering them lightly in red wine vinegar (and a clove of garlic) made them even more attractive.  The onions still had a bit of crunch when they went into the jars, but had softened slightly.  I'm looking forward to using them in salads, or on barbecue sandwiches, and of course the vinegar itself will be amazing when it's all infused with great onion flavor.

My next trick was more complicated, for sure.  I decided that I wanted to do something with garlic since it ranks among my favorite foods.  I found Roasted Garlic Jelly in Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving and was immediately interested in the sweet roasted garlic, balsamic vinegar and dry white wine.  Quite possibly perfect. 

I collected my ingredients and roasted the garlic.  Checking one more time while the garlic roasted, I realized that the recipe required liquid pectin.  Doh! I only had powdered.  I did some poking around the interwebs and contemplated a substitution, but I am way too green to go against the general guidance that advised against the attempt.  And so I waited another day or two to get the pectin.  But it was well worth it.  I haven't tried the jelly out of the jar, but I stuck a finger in the leftovers coating my saucepan and it was great.  The wine and garlic melded together nicely and the color can't be beat.

Allium month definitely wins the prize (so far) for yielding the most beautiful colors and the most recipes tucked away to try sometime soon.  Once garlic-related items are in the farmers' market this spring, kettle beware!

Red Onions in Vinegar (from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving)

• 4 cups red wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic
• 10 cups sliced peeled red onions

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, add vinegar.  Smash garlic lightly and add to vinegar.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes, so that garlic can infuse the vinegar. 
3. Add onion rings.  Turn heat up to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Reduce and boil gently, covered, for 5 minutes and onions are completely heated. Discard garlic.
4. Pack hot onion rings into jars leaving generous 1/2 inch head space.  Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover onions, maintaining head space.  Remove air bubbles and add more pickling liquid if necessary to maintain 1/2 inch space in jar.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band until tight.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes and then remove jars.  Allow to cool on the counter for 24 hours.  Store.
6. Makes about 7 8-ounce jars.

Roasted Garlic Jelly (more fun from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving)

• 3 medium heads garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
• 1 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar (regular is fine if you can't find white)
• 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 pouches liquid pectin

1. Cut off tops of garlic heads.  Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over heads.  Place in foil and scrunch ends closed.  Roast for 45-60 minutes at 425F or until garlic soft.  Once cool enough to handle, separate cloves and set aside.  Discard skins.
2. In a medium stainless steel saucepan, combine roasted garlic, wine, water, white balsasmic vinegar and peppercorns.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes.  Cover, remove from heat and let steep for 15 minutes.
3. Transfer garlic mixture to dampened jelly bag or strainger lined with several layers of dampened cheese cloth set over a deep bowl.  Let drip, undisturbed, for about 30 minutes.  Measure 1 2/3 garlic juice.  If you do not get enough, add up to 1/4 cup dry white wine or water.
4. While waiting, prepare canners, jars and lids.
5. Transfer garlic juice to large deep stainless steel saucepan.  Stir in lemon juice and sugar.  Over high heat, stirring constantly, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.  Stir in pectin.  Boil hard, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam.
6. Quickly pour hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band until tight.
7. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes and remove jars.  Cool on counter for 24 hours. Store.
8. Makes about 9 4-ounce jars.

Meatless Monday: Polenta with Poached Egg and Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions

Awhile back, I came across the apparently viral Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions that had been all over the internet.  I was late to it even then, but it looked so simple and tasty that it went into the remember-to-make-soon brain folder.

I finally got around to it and have to say that I was pleased.  I am a fan of a simple smooth slightly sweet tomato sauce.  This is exactly that.  It satisfies in a soothing way and certainly comes together in a snap. All you need, I kid you not, is canned San Marzano tomatoes, butter and an onion. Period.

In the comments section for the tomato sauce recipe at Smitten Kitchen, there were a few variations including using a poached egg or eating the cooked onion (which gets removed in the recipe) on toast with some balsamic vinegar.  I thought, why not do all of those!?! And, my friends, I did.

I pan-fried some organic polenta (yes, the kind in a tube, but I had to use it up) and topped it with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, some onion, a bit of sauce and a poached egg.  Some fresh parsley or basil would have made a lovely addition, but the beauty of the dish is that all of the aforementioned things are around my kitchen pretty much all the time. 

Polenta with Poached Egg and Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions

• 2 1-inch slices of prepared polenta (or your preferred serving of polenta from scratch)
• 2 good drizzles of balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions, divided
• 1/4 onion from Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
• 1 egg, poached
• 2-3 sprigs fresh basil
• fresh cracked black pepper

1. Pan-fry polenta cakes.
2. Set on plate.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.  Top with 2 tbsp tomato sauce and onion. 
3. Place poached egg on onion.  Top with additional 1 tbsp tomato sauce.  Garnish with basil and fresh black pepper to taste.
4. Dig in, yolk first.  Enjoy!

March Daring Cooks Challenge: Sage and Lemon Risotto with Spicy Sausage

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This challenge excited me greatly as I absolutely love risotto and would like to make my own stock more often.  Check and check! I do tend to stick to my regular Red Wine Risotto with slight variations and so I took this as a sign from the universe to try something new.  I certainly couldn't post twice on the same recipe, not for a challenge!

But I am getting ahead of myself.  First, risotto requires stock.  And I've seen and heard many a time that the better the stock, the better the risotto.  Essentially, I hadn't seen anything yet! I made two attempts to collect a chicken for my stock.  The first stop was an NYC-based gourmet grocery shop that was on my way home from a yoga class.  I was shocked and astounded to see that a 3 lb. organic whole chicken cost well over 16 dollars.  Since organic, all-natural, well-treated chicken is the main way I'll eat it these days, I headed over to my local Trader Joe's.  There, I found a 4 lb. organic all-natural whole chicken for just over 11 dollars.  Much better.

I used the challenge recipe for the stock because I haven't yet settled on a way that I like to do it and I was intrigued by the use of lemon in the seasoning.  I was short on lemon peel at the time, but I did have some dried lemon zest and so that was the one substitution I made.  In went the rest of the seasoning (see recipe below) and off it bubbled for what seemed like forever.  The smells were very enticing. I removed the chicken which pretty much fell apart and used the meat in another dish coming later this week. 

Next came the risotto.  The use of lemon in the stock got my recipe improv mojo going since I've seen several lemon risottos over time that I wanted to try.  I do have the preserved lemons from the last Daring Cooks challenge, but I also wanted to use the brave little sage leaves that have lasted on our window sill winter.  By this time, I'd managed to procure actual lemons and so, sage and lemon risotto!

I used the recipe base recommended for the challenge, and tweaked it based on another that I found online. We didn't have quite as much happy sage on our plant as I'd hoped, so I think you could do with a lot more.  This is also a very subtle soothing risotto.  I knew I'd need to add a little pop to make it a hit in my house, so I sauteed some local hot italian sausage from Bradley's Farm that I picked up at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market and sprinkled it on top of the risotto.  This gave the dish some extra spice that didn't overwhelm the sage and lemon favors.  I don't recommend adding it any earlier as it may have competed with the risotto. 

Chicken Stock

• 1 large chicken 3-4 pounds
• chicken bones 2-3 pounds (I didn't use, but this will make the flavor richer)
• 2 onions, roughly diced
• 1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
• 2 sticks celery, roughly diced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
• peel of 1/2 lemon or good dash of dried lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp. allspice

1. Wash the chicken and bones and places in a large stock pot.  Cover completely with water and bring to a boil.  Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface.
2. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil.
3. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup or enchiladas!
5. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At the end you should have around 2 Liters.
6. Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Sage and Lemon Risotto with Spicy Sausage

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 bunch sage, roughly chopped
• peel of 1/2 lemon
• 12 oz Arborio rice (about two cups)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
• 1/3 pound fresh hot italian sausage, casings removed

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.  Add sage and lemon peel. 
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by about an inch.
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 5 until rice is slightly al dente and cooked through.  In the meantime, saute the sausage in a small pan, breaking into small crumbles.  Set aside.
7. Add lemon juice and pecorino to finished risotto.  Mix well.  Top with sausage.  (Remove lemon peel in the event there will be confusion. I left it in because it was pretty and continued to impart lemon flavor to the dish).

Pork Banh Mi Meatball Sandwiches

Bon Appetit says that 2010 is the year of the meatball.  I say, what year isn't? But I do appreciate the number of twists on the traditional Italian meatball or the Chinese lion's head meatball that I generally think of when I hear the word. 

One take on the meatball that they offered up recently was the Pork Banh Mi Meatball.  Before you say that Banh Mi is so 2009, just remember that now we're talking meatballs.  A refreshing twist, then, on both the meatball and Banh Mi. 

This recipe caught my eye even before the Tigress Can Jam started, but it immediately popped into my head the other day when I wanted to come up with more uses for my Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickles.  Let's face it, this dish is what my pickles were meant for in the first place!

The complete recipe in the link above shows you a quick way to achieve a similar result in case you don't have jars of Vietnamese pickled vegetables crying out for a spicy meatball sandwich.  I haven't given it a try, but I'm sure they will do. 

I made a double batch of these meatballs and they kept very well in the fridge, feeding us for at least 6 meals.  Next time around I'll try freezing them.  I meant to do that this time, but they were so good that we just kept eating them! I ran out of bread part way through, but these were equally excellent in a bowl of rice with pickled vegetables, cilantro and sriracha. 

Also, I skipped the mayo mentioned in the original recipe because I am a no mayo sort of lady.  That may be banh mi blasphemy.  I just used extra sriracha since that can never be wrong, but you may want to check out the original recipe if you're into that whole mayo thing.

Pork Banh Mi Meatball Sandwiches (adapted from Bon Appetit)

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sriracha
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp fresly cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt or coarse kosher salt

• 4 individual baguettes or sections of baguette
• Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickles
• Fresh jalapeno or other chili slices
• Fresh cilantro sprigs

1. Gently mix all ingredients before baguettes in a large bowl.  Roll tablespoon-sized amounts of meat mixture into meatballs.  (Can be made 1 day ahead.  If so, place on large baking sheet, cover and chill.)
2. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add half of meatballs.  Saute gently until brown and cooked through, turning frequently.  Be careful not to over-brown.
3. Cut each baguette or baguette section horizontally in half.  If using hot chili mayo, spread over shell.  If not, add as much sriracha as you might be able to stand - a good drizzle will do. Arrange jalapenos, then cilantro on the bottom of the bread. 
4. Add 1/4 of the meatballs to each baguette.  Top with carrot and daikon pickles.  Enjoy!