Homemade Mustard

So yesterday I mentioned using homemade mustard in the honey mustard that I made. So here is the recipe. I got it from a cookbook that my mom has, A Harvest of Health Hospitality written and illustrated by Sharon Morgan.

Mustard

I have been trying to make mustard since my college days but have only ended up with results that were worthy to be called a "five alarm blaze." Then one day I read that it takes 6 - 8 weeks for mustard to mellow at room temperature. Refrigeration stops the mellowing process. Relying on these nuggets of valuable info, the following tasty mustard recipe was born. It takes about 6 to 7 weeks for a nice spicy mustard -- 8 to 12 weeks for a mild version. Feel free to experiment! If guar gum is not available, boil 2 Tbsp powered fruit pectin in the water for 1 minute and allow to cool before adding to the rest of the ingredients.

Blend in blender until seeds are almost decimated.

1/2 cup dry mustard
1/2 cup mustard seed

 Pour mustard into glass bowl and add the following:


1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup honey (for a hotter version, reduce to 1/4 cup)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric (color)
1 tsp guar gum (thickener, see above)

Stir thoroughly. Pour into one pint glass jar. Keep at room temperature until mellowed, then refrigerate. Great gift!

Salmon Cake Dinner

Tonight for dinner I made salmon cakes.  First I thought about making salmon cakes and eating them as sandwiches, but then I decided to go more the actual dinner route and make rice and steam broccoli to go with it.  We do something like that at work.

So for the salmon cakes I put them in a pot with water, salt, and lemon juice then steamed them about five minutes until they were flaky.

 Then I mixed it together with two eggs, parsley, pepper, some Worcestershire, a bit of milk, and crushed up oatmeal.

Then I formed them into patties.  Normally I would make them 4 oz each but because I wanted two per person, and their is 7 of us, I had to make them 2.5 oz each.

I made two different sauce to go with the cakes.  Cream Honey Mustard and Horseradish Cream Sauce.  Made the honey mustard with a bit of Dijon, a bit of cream, lots of honey and homemade mustard.  Yup yup.  Home made mustard.  It's so good.

While the rice was cooking and the broccoli was steaming I fried the cakes.

It was good.  I didn't have any of the horseradish sauce because I'm not really a fan of it.  Honey mustard is more my thing.

I think I put in too much crushed oatmeal.  The cakes were a bit too dry.  Bummers.  Now I know for next time to put in less.

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Pinto Bean Casserole

Casseroles.  So easy, but so good.  Yesterday I made Pinto Bean Casserole.  It's pretty much just crushed tortilla chips on the bottom

followed by a mixture of corn, salsa, and pinto beans,

and then sprinkled with cheese.  I actually layered on cheddar cheese, but whatever.

Then it was in the oven for a while until it was heated thoroughly.

I also made sweet potato fries, because they are so good.

Sprinkled them with oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Then it was in the oven until they were done and a bit crispy.

The casserole turned out great.

Yum yum!

I didn't take a picture of the fries because I didn't stir them like I should have and they kinda bur...they over-caramelized.  But eaten with lots of Ranch dressing made them okay.

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Restaurant Review: Sotto Sopra - Baltimore, MD

  I like going out to eat.  I like going to Baltimore and going out to eat with my cousins.  It's fun.  Kills two birds with one stone; going out to eat and spending time with the cousins who I don't see all that much anymore.  Today Jon, Janina, and I went to eat with the cousins to Sotto Sopra.  Thanks Danae for recommending the place.
  "Sotto Sopra is a slick, hip, stylish contemporary Italian restaurant located in the cultural district of downtown Baltimore. The historical 19th century townhome is back drop to great Italian cuisine. Enjoy monthly Opera Nights."  I stole that from their Facebook page.  Now I'm going to come right out and say it, I'm not too fond of Italian restaurants.  Let me explain, I like Italian food.  But it seems like every other restaurant nowadays is Italian.  People that aren't even Italian open Italian restaurants.  Why?  Because people like Italian food and by jumping on that bandwagon there is a good chance the restaurant will attract people.  But there can be a problem with that, these wannabe Italian places tend to be cheesy.  So unless you have an authentic Italian restaurant, I would rather not go there.  All that to say, Sotto Sopra is an authentic Italian place.  From Italian people working there to authentic decorating and, sticker for me, Italian spelling on the menu.
  Sotto Sopra participated in  Baltimore Restaurant Week and although that ended last week they extended their restaurant week menu for a few more days.  So that meant we could order a three course meal for $30.  Good deal.  For the first course, appetizer, I ordered polenta with escargot.  Very creamy polenta...and the snails.  Yum!!  Second course I ordered, I don't even remember what it was exactly, salmon with arugula and set on some sort of beans.  It was amazing whatever it was.  Third course I ordered Chocolate Pots de Creme.  My goodness.  So good!  Oh and before all that we ordered a cheese platter.  Three different kinds of cheese drizzled with honey and served with crusty bread.  Don't ask my what the cheeses were.  I forget.  All I remember was two of them were good and the third not so much.  The plating and the designs on the plates were quite good.  Very nicely plated and attractive.  Good to look at, even better to eat.  It was a bit pricey, spent $43 for everything, tip included, but it was well worth it.

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Restaurant Review: The Black Sheep - Richmond, VA

The other week I was in Richmond with Janina and Austin.  When I was trying to decide upon a place to eat lunch I was thinking about The Hill Cafe, did some research on it, and then noticed that people were bragging up The Black Sheep.  Not until after I decided we were going there for lunch did I realized that they were featured on Man v Food.  Check it out on Youtube here.  Their "battleship" sandwiches really settled it for me, we were going there.  Now they name these sandwiches "battleships" for a reason, they are no ordinary subs.  They are so big that they are no longer subs, they are battleships.  Two foot long toasted French baguette loaded with yummy goodness.  The first thing you will notice about The Black Sheep is that it is small.  Looks almost like a little house when you drive by.  The dining room is very small as well.  Their menu is not small, however, as the battleships attest to.  Check out their Facebook page here for their menu.  Janina ordered a half USS Brooklyn.  Jerk barbecued chicken, loaded into a toasted french baguette with shredded cabbage, roasted banana ketchup & peach chutney.  Austin and I split a full USS Congress.  Chipotle roasted pork shoulder simmered in a tomatillo barbeque sauce with grilled pineapple and a Mexican style pickled pepper and cabbage salad, loaded into a toasted french baguette.  My goodness it was great!  Anything with pork is going to be good.  The grilled pineapple made the sandwich.  So good!  The USS Brooklyn was a bit too hot for Janina.  Jerk seasonings will do that.  So Austin and I gave here a bit of our battleship and we had some of hers.  My goodness that was amazing too!  You didn't realize how hot it was while you were eating it because the roasted banana ketchup and peach chutney balanced the heat.  Then after a few bites you were like, "Yea, this is hot."  But it was so good!  It's probably a good thing I don't live in Richmond because I could easily see me frequenting this place at least once a week and spending money that I don't really have.

Now I usually don't take pictures in restaurants but this had to be an exception.  Take a gander at this.

Yea.

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Roast Beef

We have put ourselves on somewhat of a weekly schedule for our healthier eating.
Sunday = vegetarian
Monday = meat night, chicken or beef
Tuesday = vegetarian
Wednesday = fish night
Thursday = vegetarian
Friday = vegetarian
Saturday = pizza, and that usually includes meat
Sunday = vegetarian

Today is Monday so that was meat night.  I made a beef roast.  Now I'm going to come right out and say it... I'm not a big fan of roasts.  They are usually dry and then you smother it with gravy.  Not my choice of eating meat.  I would much rather have a steak cooked medium-rare.  But then again, roasts are easy to make, and we have some in the freezer, so that is what was made.

First I seared the roast on all sides in an iron skillet.

Then I put it the the crock pot with a mierpoix (50% onion, 25% each carrot and celery), some Worcestershire, a bit of red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and water.  Set it on low overnight because it was still frozen.

This morning I took it out of the crock pot and let it cool in the fridge before slicing it.

I made gravy with all that yummy juices left over in the crock pot.  Added salt and pepper, a bit of thyme, a bay leaf, and balsamic vinegar.  I experimented and used ground up oatmeal for the thickener instead of flour.  A slurry of flour and water tends to make it too thick and clumpy for me.  The oatmeal worked, I just had to let it simmer a bit longer and then strain it.

When it was close to dinner time I sliced the roast and re-heated it with gravy on top.  Made mashed potatoes and heated up green beans with a bit of corn.

That is Boston Iced Tea in the background.

It was good, I guess.  Everybody always raves about my mashed potatoes.  I don't know why.  All they are are mashed potatoes with the skin on, milk and/or cream, salt, and pepper.  This time I added sour cream. 

I'm still not a big fan of roasts.

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Veggie and Tofu Stir Fry

Today for lunch after church I used the beloved wok and made some more stir fry.  Just used stuff we had sitting in the fridge.  Bok choy, tofu, onion, carrot, celery, and purple cabbage.

Mise en place

First I heated the wok and stir fried the onion,

then added the carrots,

celery,

cabbage and bok coy,

and lastly the tofu.

Sprinkled soy sauce over it all along with salt and pepper.  Let it cook for a bit then added a bit of cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce a bit.  Ate it over brown rice because brown rice is healthier than plain white rice.

Not much to look at but it was quite good!

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