Bleck!
Mustard and I have had a love hate relationship. For a long time it was something that I truly just hated. Now it’s different than my disdain for mayonnaise which has always been more about the unnecessary addition of sour smelling fat to one’s sandwich, (or any dish for that matter.) No, my issue with mustard was much more of a ‘bleck’ reaction, quite literally, whenever I tasted it, and as you may know, I am willing to try most anything, and more than once at that. I tried yellow mustard, honey mustard, dijon mustard, hot mustard, mustard pretzel bites, even the ‘good’ stuff, “Got any Grey Poupon?” Nope!
But then I started to add little bits of it into dishes. My thought was that mustard doesn’t need to be consumed as a food all it’s own. As many of you, I’m sure, would be content to do. *Imagine Tommy Boy in your passenger seat with a full bottle of French’s yellow mustard….* Why not use it more like a seasoning? Of-course even the smallest bit stood out like a sore thumb at first, but I started to discover that the extra (now required) layer of some sweet hot mustard in baked beans made a world of difference! Soon I found myself adding yellow mustard powder to a variety of dishes and sauces for an added base layer of heat and depth, and eventually the ‘bleck’ reaction seemed to lessen.
Then came the day that I tried a tiny sliver of a Cuban style stuffed bun. Having never had one (because of the mustard ‘issue’) I totally expected the vary much present, hot and sloppy yellow mustard to be a deal breaker. Lo And Behold! The ham and swiss were great, and the crunchy pickle was absolutely outstanding…. but the mustard? There wasn’t a ‘bleck’ to be felt! Had I actually cured myself of this ‘ailment?!’ We’ll have to see where it goes from here.
As for this dish? It has been on my mind for a long long time. I think perhaps the desire to get-over ‘the mustard matter’ began with Andrew and I’s lay-over in Frankfurt on our way to Kazakhstan, way back in 2006. As much as I know that the little restaurant we ate at in the historic town square was probably totally catered to lousy tourists’ tastes, that single ‘ethnic’ meal was so fantastically pleasant and absolutely wonderful! It is the first time I recall trying to make an educated guess about what might have been used to make the sauce, and what type of spice the little seeds were. “Why do you suppose they chose to serve this sauce with these sausages?” Perhaps it could even be considered the beginning of my culinary awakening?
Either way, I’ve had it in my head to make a mustard based sauce to go with a German style sausage for a very long time now…. and I am superbly proud of what I have come up with!
Obviously, it took me a long time to just get to a place that I can even work with mustard without making pouty faces like a child. After that I continued to run into the issue of how to tone down the heat of the yellow mustard while still trying to bring up an obvious mustard flavor. Apparently no one around me really works from scratch with mustard powder. I would just have to experiment.
It’s easy to discover that you need to mix the fresh mustard powder with a liquid to really get the flavor out. Mix it with water and you have Chinese hot mustard. Mix it with vinegar and you get really hot yellow mustard.
In my decision to make a cream sauce I wanted to use egg yolks and cream, so I needed to emulsify them. Should I start with raw egg yolks and oil like a mayo, or should I cook them over the stove with butter like hollandais sauce or a custard? If I use vinegar to get the flavor of the mustard out, will I end up with a sour sauce? And/or will my mixture break when I add the cream? Egg yolk, butter, and cream seems like it would be a little too rich…. as you can see it took quite a bit of experimenting.
Whisk Whisk Whisk Whisk Whisk
First I had to see if you can get the egg and the cream to emulsify alone. Whisk, whisk, whisk. Yes. You can, slowly over heat. Next adjust the amount of egg and add some mustard powder. Whisk, Whisk, Whisk… not enough mustard, still too much yolk. Whisk, whisk, whisk. Try using apple cider vinegar to bring out the mustard and make some other adjustments. Whisk, whisk, whisk. What about using crushed brown mustard instead? What about white wine? Whisk, Whisk, Whisk. Whisk, whisk, whisk… are you getting the idea?
I kid you not, I spent the equivalent of an entire hour whisking in a single evening just trying to get this all straightened out. What do you do when you are stuck at the range for that kind of time frame? Work your way through Anthony Bourdain’s war experience in Beirut on the laptop. Yup. This is me, typically the rather old-school kind of girl, cooking while watching TV on my laptop next to the stove. Didn’t see that coming in any crystal ball!
So I guess it all comes down to the long story short of working really hard to create a sauce that I have been pondering for years, and years, and year now. To go with it I found some locally produced knackwurst, and I have to tell you, I am really proud of this recipe. I truly hope that all the time and experimenting it required was worth it for you, my lovely followers, to be able to make this dish for your own family… without the extra hours and hours of whisking.
Mustard Cream Sauce
By:semiserious chefs
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 white cooking wine
- 5 T brown mustard seeds; crushed/ground*
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/4 t pepper
- 4-6 plump sausages**
- 1/2 to 1 T of spice seeds as preferred**
*You want to use brown mustard. The yellow mustard powder that you can buy pre-ground makes this sauce really hot and bitter. I used a mortal and pestle with batches of 1 tablespoon at a time so I could be sure each seed got crushed. You may be able to use a bullet or food processor, but the seeds are really quite small. I’m sure a coffee grinder would work, but I don’t know what kind of flavor that might instill, if it has regularly been used for coffee.
**Sausage: I would suggest something mild and perhaps made from pork. Bratwurst is a good choice, but it’s up to you. Though there is no sweetener in this sauce, by nature it has a creamy and rich, almost sweet flavor. I suppose someone might enjoy that with their hot links, maple, or even Italian sausage. I will say that it happened to go surprisingly well with the little smokies we had made for the childrens’ lunch the day I put this together.
Fish: It dawned on me (driving past 10th and M Seafoods) that this might be very good with salmon or white fish.
…then afterthat I thought of chicken fried steak… so lots of options, once again!
***When we had that first meal in Germany they had whole caraway seeds in their sauce with the sausage. I prefer the flavor of fennel seed, but the sweetness of dill seed, or even celery seed could also be a possibilities. Andrew doesn’t like having whole seeds in something like this sauce, but I find a bit of romance in it. In other words, add your favorite spice seeds as you see fit. You can either add them in from the start or toss them on as a garnish.
Directions:
- Crush/grind the brown mustard seeds, then add the white wine and allow to rest for an hour. This is crucial to getting any sort of flavor out of your mustard.
- Add the egg yolks, heavy cream, salt, pepper, (spice seeds if using,) and mustard wine to a small sauce pan over medium low heat. (On our electric stove I used #3-4) If you cook your sauce over too high of a heat it will not blend.
- Whisk continually. It’s going to take a little while, so get yourself comfortable; probably around 10 minutes. What you start with is a liquid, but eventually it will thicken up ever so slightly to become a sauce. It will feel different, though maybe not as thick as your are expecting. Keep in mind, it will also thicken as it cools. Remove from heat as soon as it has thickened. Do not over cook your newly thickened sauce, or it will ‘break.’
- Grill or fry your sausages, and serve smothered in sauce, with spice seeds optional.
- You can also serve a steamed vegetable like asparagus, green beans, or broccoli along-side, or place the meat over a bed of spinach or mustard greens before you sauce. There are many options.
Oh, and by the way, if you can make this sauce you will also be able to make one of the French Mother Sauces; Hollandais. You can become a Rock Star in your own home!
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