Category Archives: Condiments & ETC.

Hot Mustard Recipe

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Veronica

Are you getting sick of my spice blend and condiment posts? Well, not to worry, this is the last one (for now) and I saved the best for last.

My hubby is obsessed with the hot mustard you get at Chinese restaurants. He simply can not eat Chinese food without hot mustard and chopsticks. So a couple of years ago I bought him some plastic chopsticks and some hot mustard powder at our Asian market so he could eat the stuff I served without noticing how awful it was. Worked like a charm! We just mixed the powder with water and ta-da! Mustard so hot it made our eyes burn and totally masked the flavor of the food we were eating. Perfect.

However, the powder eventually ran out and the hubby was very sad. I don’t go to the Asian market often so he suffered in silence for a while, until a knight in shining armor came along to rescue him from his hot-mustardless Chinese food. My friend Dewey (the same Dewey of one-minute mayonnaise fame) let me in on a secret. Do you know what’s in hot mustard? Just two ingredients. Ground mustard and water. (!) When you mix the two, a chemical reaction occurs which makes the mustard very hot. That prepared mustard you put on your hot dogs and sandwiches has vinegar in it, which neutralizes the heat. How cool (or hot, in this case) is that? That is science-cool!

I checked the label on that empty “hot mustard” powder tin and found that, indeed, the only ingredients were ground mustard and turmeric (for added color). So I tested Dewey’s “recipe” and sure enough, it’s just like the stuff you get at the restaurants! It’s enough to make me want to do a little happy dance.

Hot Mustard
Printable recipe

2 parts Ground Mustard Seed
1 part Water

Put as much mustard powder into a small bowl as you think you’ll need and add half that amount in water. I used 2 teaspoons of mustard, 1 teaspoon of water and that was enough for two meals. Store extra in the fridge. Dewey says maximum heat is reached after 30 minutes, but it will be very hot instantly per our experience. He also says that the heat will diminish over time, but the extra we stored in the fridge overnight seemed just as hot the next day and we’ve stored hot mustard in the fridge for up to a month and it was still pretty hot so it apparently never gets mild over time, just loses some of that pungent intense heat after a while.

Recipe source: Dewey B.

9 Comments

Posted in Asian, Condiments & ETC. and tagged chinese, hot mustard. Bookmark the permalink.

One Minute Mayonnaise

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Veronica

In the past, making homemade mayonnaise was quite a chore that involved a lot of whisking and slowly, slowly pouring oil into an egg & vinegar mixture. Thanks to my friend, Dewey, who introduced me to the joy of homemade mayonnaise, I’ve discovered that using a food processor makes the task much faster. Less than a minute, in fact. Here, I’ll prove it:

See that? 40 seconds and it’s ready to use. And it’s even better than the best name brand mayonnaise you can purchase. So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose!

One Minute Mayonnaise
Printable recipe

1 egg
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups canola oil

Place the first three ingredients in food processor bowl. Measure the oil and have it ready. Turn the processor on and once the egg is mixed, begin pouring the oil through the feed tube while it’s still running. Start with a thin stream and increase the flow until all the oil is incorporated. The mayonnaise should be done by the time all the oil is in, but run it a few more seconds if it’s not thick enough. Store in refrigerator for up to ten days.

Veronica’s Notes: You can use any oil you wish, but you must make sure that it has ZERO bittnerness to it. Any hint of bitterness is magnified 100-fold when you turn it into mayonnaise. Dewey warned me but I discovered it the hard way by making my first batch with just a half cup of the olive oil I had in my pantry. I liked the taste on it’s own, but it was slightly bitter and when turned into mayonnaise, it was terrible. You can also use any type of acid you wish, like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, but I like the taste of it best with white vinegar.

Recipe source: adapted from Dewey B.

I added 2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives to make this chive mayonnaise. 2 teaspoons dried chives could be substituted.

36 Comments

Posted in Condiments & ETC. and tagged easy, homemade, mayonnaise, quick. Bookmark the permalink.

Easy Garam Masala (Indian Spice Blend) Recipe

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Veronica

I have a pretty well-stocked spice pantry but when I wanted to make Mel’s Bean Curry (which is pictured above and crazy super-fabulous, by the way), I realized I have no garam masala on hand. I looked up some recipes for the spice blend and most of them included toasted & grinding whole seeds, which didn’t appeal to me. And I didn’t have whole seeds, anyway. So I went with a recipe that used ground spices and happened to have every one of them on hand. The homemade garam masala was perfect–just how I remembered it tasting last time I used some from a bottle.

Easy Garam Masala
Printable recipe

1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoons ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Mix spices in a small bowl. Place mix in an airtight container, and store in a cool, dry place.

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

14 Comments

Posted in Condiments & ETC. and tagged easy, garam masala, Indian spice blend. Bookmark the permalink.

Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Veronica

I’ve seen recipes like this floating around the blog world, most recently on Brown Eyed Baker, but there was a glaring problem with them. They had no salt! Tell me you’d eat taco meat that had no salt in it. So I made my own mix that included salt and it came out perfect–almost exactly like the packaged mix but with no scary ingredients. I used the meat from my first batch to make that wonderful white trash taco salad stuff with Doritos & a whole bottle of French dressing in it, but the meat can obviously be used in tacos, nachos, or whatever else your creative little mind desires.

Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

¼ cup chili powder
¼ cup paprika
3 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl.

Over medium heat, brown 1 lb ground beef and drain. Stir in 2 ½ tablespoons taco mix & ½ cup water. Continue cooking over medium heat until the sauce thickens and coats the meat and there is not much liquid left. Store remaining seasoning mix in an airtight container at room temperature.

21 Comments

Posted in Condiments & ETC., Mexican and tagged homemade, mix, seasoning, spice, taco. Bookmark the permalink.

Any Berry Sauce

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Veronica

I was making my favorite buttermilk pancakes a couple Saturdays ago and near the end of the process, I suddenly remembered a recipe for blueberry sauce I’d gotten in an email from Alice’s Savory Sweet Life blog. The gorgeous pictures of the sauce sitting atop a pile of pancakes was still fresh in my mind even three weeks after seeing it, and I knew I had to make it for my own pancakes. Dennis was totally willing to wait an extra ten minutes so I could whip up the sauce.

I only had a bag of mixed frozen berries, which worked very well with the recipe. The blueberries kept their shape along with a few of the blackberries and the raspberries and most of the blackberries cooked down to flavor the sauce and fleck it with pretty seeds. Feel free to use whatever berries you have, frozen or not, to make this simple and amazing sauce.

Any Berry Sauce
recipe adapted from Savory Sweet Life

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh or frozen berries of your choice
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons grated orange zest/rind (optional, though Alice recommends it for the blueberry sauce)

Directions:

Cook blueberries, sugar, and water on medium-high heat for 10, minutes stirring occasionally. Turn heat off and stir in orange rind. Serve immediately while warm. Makes approx. 1 1/4 cups of sauce.

Ideas for berries: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, lingonberries or a mixture of any of these. I think cherries would also work well and would be awesome on top of chocolate pancakes. :)

9 Comments

Posted in Breakfast, Condiments & ETC., Vegetarian & Vegan. Bookmark the permalink.

Zesty Pizza Sauce

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Veronica

I usually don’t follow pizza recipes because to me, pizza is a thing you kind of just throw together with whatever you happen to have on hand. I do, however, follow a recipe for sauce and it’s always, always this one. It’s my idea of a perfect pizza sauce: thick & zesty and easy to prepare. It’s perfect for any classic combination of meat and/or veggie toppings and the prep is so quick that I always do it just before I need it, usually while the pizza dough is resting, because I always forget to make it in advance.

Zesty Old School Style Pizza Sauce
Recipe from The Cooking Photographer

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground sweet paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Fresh cracked pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons olive oil*
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Place all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and stir together.

Makes 1½ cups of pizza sauce, which is enough to cover two large pizzas or three medium.

*I’ve made it with the full 2 T of oil, but lately have begun using just 2 teaspoons. I can’t say I prefer one over the other so if you’re looking to save some calories, you might do the same.

4 Comments

Posted in Condiments & ETC., Italian, My Favorites, Pizza and tagged easy, pizza sauce, quick, zesty. Bookmark the permalink.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Veronica

This dressing is really stinkin’ good. That’s all I have to say. Except that after taking this photo, I ate this entire plate of veggies (though I detest cucumbers) and almost all of the dressing. It’s really good. Really.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Recipe by Our Best Bites

*note that all spices/herbs listed below are dried. If substituting fresh, use the rule 1 part dry = 3 parts fresh.

1 C mayo
2/3 C buttermilk
1/4 t white vinegar
1 t parsley
1/8 t dill
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1 1/2 t dried chives
1/8 t black pepper
1/4 t seasoned salt
1/8 t dry mustard

Beat the mayo and buttermilk until smooth, then stir in the remaining ingredients. Refrigerate at least overnight to allow the flavors to develop.

8 Comments

Posted in Condiments & ETC., My Favorites and tagged buttermilk, dressing, easy, ranch. Bookmark the permalink.

Killer Cranberry Sauce

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Veronica

This is my family’s favorite cranberry sauce. I should preface that with the fact that before I started serving this particular sauce, my Dad was the only one in the family that actually liked cranberry sauce. Now we all have to have it every Thanksgiving because skipping this sauce would be like skipping the turkey–it’s inconceivable.

Tart & sweet with a vibrant splash of orange flavor & the nutty crunch from toasted pecans…it is divine. And if you think that only adults with distinguished palates would enjoy it, then you haven’ t seen my three year old nephew dipping every piece of his turkey in it and refusing to eat the turkey any other way.

Do you serve cranberry sauce with your Thanksgiving dinner? What is your favorite way to prepare it?

Killer Cranberry Sauce

1 navel orange
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 t grated fresh ginger
4 c cranberries
1/2 c toasted pecans, chopped*

Grate the orange peel from the orange and put into a large saucepan. Juice the orange and add the juice to the pan along with the sugar and ginger. Stir & simmer over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add cranberries and cook until they pop & the mixture thickens–about five to ten minutes. Cool and store in the refrigerator. Stir in pecans just before serving. Serve cold.

*To toast the pecans, place them on a microwave-safe plate in a single layer. Microwave for one minute, stir, then zap for another minute or until fragrant.