Mustard zaps up cheese dishes

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 12

Mustard zaps up cheese dishes

Food & Fable

by

David Burton

The huge range of prepared mustards on our supermarket shelves these days might lead you to believe that mustard-mak-ing is an arcane and complicated art, when in fact nothing could be simpler.

Making your own mustard is not at all time consuming and rather fun, and gives you a jar for about half the cost of the commercial brands.

This recipe gives you a fairly fiery product, so if you prefer a milder mustard, omit the green peppercorns and reduce the amount of mustard powder. Coarse-grained mustard Soak y 2 cup white or brown mustard seeds in cup wine vinegar (preferably red wine vinegar) for three hours, until the seeds have absorbed most of the liquid. Place 1 tablespoon green peppercorns in a food processor and grind. (This is optional). Add the mustard seeds and the remaining vinegar and bruise lightly with a few on-off presses of the pulse button. Add % cup dry hot English mustard

powder, 1 teaspoon ground allspice, teaspoon ground turmeric, teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons cold water. Turn the food processor on and grind for about 15 seconds, then stop and push down any whole seeds which have crept up the sides.

Turn on the machine again and grind a further 20 to 30 seconds or more, until the seeds are roughly chopped but not ground into a puree. How long you leave the mixture grinding in the machine will depend on the power of the motor. Alternatively, the seeds caan be mashed with a mortar and pestle. / Leave overnight to allow the flavour to mature. Store in the fridge in a well sealed container.

Three plants of the cabbage family provide us with three types of-mus-tard seed — black, brown and white. Brown mustard seed has only about 70 per cent of the pungency of the black, but is now the main variety grown since the black is unsuitable for modem mechanised harvesting, being a tall plant which drops its seeds too easily when ripe.

Nowadays, most of the world’s crop comes from the Canadian prairies, although it is still grown in Norwich, England, to supply Colmans, the company whose name has become synonymous with hot English mustard. Jeremiah Coleman began milling mustard in Norwich in 1814. Forty years later the company moved to its present site at Carrow and built a new works, developing a company relationship with their employees unheard of in Victorian times: there was a factory nurse, a school for the employee’s children, a subsidised staff cafeteria, a sports centre, and cheap workers’ housing. Colemans also virtually

invented mass marketing,, imprinting its famous bull’s head trade mark in the minds of the Western world through roadside hoardings, enamelled metal signs, special Christmas tins and countless little giveaways. The pungency of mustard is due to an essential oil which is only released once the crushed seed comes into contact with water. An enzyme in the seed then causes a glucoside (related to sugar) to react with the water, thus releasing the essential oil, and hence the pungent flavour.

The enzymes need time to do their work and are killed by heat. This explains the traditional method for preparing hot

English mustard: in cold water (never boiling water), 10-15 minutes before serving. If left to stand too long, the light volatile oils begin to disappear into the air. For this reason, prepared mustard must be well sealed if it is to be stored, , and it should also be mixed with vinegar, since the acetic .acid in the vinegar stalls the action of the enzyme. It was Pliny the Elder who first suggested adding vinegar to quell the mustard’s fire; he later died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The use of mustard at the table as an accompaniment to meat has tended to overshadow an even better use, which is as an ingredient in cooking. It goes especially well in dishes containing cheese.

If the amount of mustard in this recipe seems destined to cauterise your tongue, bear in mind its fire will have been considerably mellowed within an hour or more in the oven. Potatoes with cheddar, cream and mustard

This is an elaboration

of Potatoes a la dauphinoise, so rich that accompanied by a crisp green salad, it will provide a complete meal for four people. Scrub 5Mg potatoes and peel if necessary, then slice as thinly as possible. Grate 25tg tasty Cheddar and have on hand 75g butter and % cup hot mustard, such as that given in the recipe above.

Arrange a layer of the potato slices in a large ovenproof dish. Sprinkle lightly with salt, then with a third of the grated Cheddar.

Dot with a third of the butter and a little of the mustard.

Repeat this operation for two more layers of potatoes and mix the remaining mustard with 1 cup cream, 3 cloves crushed garlic and 2 eggs.

Pour this over the top and then sprinkle over cup grated parmesan.

Bake, covered, in a 190 C (375 F oven for 40 minutes, then remove the cover and bake a further 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when tested with a skewer.