I love mustard.  Even as a child, I chose it over ketchup all the time.  Nobody else in my family has this infatuation with mustard (which is probably why I get weird looks when I eat an afternoon snack of mustard on a piece of toast).

As my tastes have matured, I’ve grown to like spicy mustards much more than good ol’ French’s.  I also use brown mustards to whip up a quick salad dressing with olive oil/vinegar/lemon juice – it seems to go well with almost any type of salad.

I recently ran out of brown mustard and am now coming dangerously close to running out of French’s.  Instead of adding it to my grocery list, I decided that I was going to put the two packets of mustard seeds in my pantry to use.

The recipe that I used produced a very strong mustard, although some of the flavour should mellow over time.  This will definitely clear your sinuses, so if you want something a bit more tame, just increase the ratio of yellow mustard seeds to black. Also, I opted out of adding turmeric to this recipe, because that is generally done to produce the colour we are used to seeing and actually doesn’t play any part in the recipe.  Besides, turmeric has a bitter aftertaste, and there’s enough flavour in this mustard already.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup black or brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp dry mustard powder
• sugar to taste (optional – this was just to cut some of the sharpness of the mustard)

1. In a wide mouth mason jar, mix the mustard seeds, water, vinegar and salt. Close the lid, give it a good shake and leave in the refrigerator for 48 hours.
2. Use a stick blender to blend the contents of the jar – the dark mustard seeds will not break down, but most of the yellow ones should. Add in the dry mustard and taste the mustard. If it is too intense, add in the sugar and blend again.
3. Return the mustard to the refrigerator and allow it to settle for a few days before using.

There are so many ways to spruce up this mustard by adding herbs, honey, chili peppers or even preserved fruit – the possibilities are endless!