China Crumpet

So Christmas is over and your fridge and freezer, if they are anything like ours, are stuffed with leftovers. Here is my favorite things to do with the mess that’s left:

Munch Munch...

What do you do with your holiday leftovers?

I have been up to my ears in cooking over the past few days, getting ready for a Swedish Christmas spread is no easy feat when you have to do everything the old school way. Little did I know though that making mustard from scratch was the easiest thing I have ever done! And it tastes amazing.

So there are 2 ways to do it. The first uses whole mustard seeds and the second uses mustard powder. They are both delicious and you can serve them together so that your guests get a little texture diversity!

This baby is just waiting to be spread on a ham sandwich!

For a whole seed grainy version (from Skane!) you will need:

• 1 1/2 dl yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 dl black mustard seeds
• 2 dl boiling water
• 1 1/2 tbs honey
• Vinegar to taste (2-3 tbs)
• 3-4 tbs oil

Put the seeds in boiling water and leave them for a while (up to a day for best results) to soften them up and plump them a bit. Put the seeds and the water in a food processor with the blade attachment and run it full speed for a minute or so until the yellow seeds have become creamy and the mixture looks mustard-like in consistency. You will have whole black seeds in the mixture which makes the texture amazingly grainy and delicious. Add vinegar honey and oil gradually, tasting as you go. I like my mustard not so sweet and pretty firm but if you like it runnier and sweeter just add water and honey to taste. When you are done, put your mustard in a lovely old fashioned jar with a lid and let it stand in the fridge for a day or two to mature.

By the way, in the olden days when they didn’t have food processors, they used a bowl and a cannon ball and rolled the ball over the seeds to crush them, adding the rest of the ingredients drip by drip. If anyone gives this method a go, please let me know how it worked out!

When making mustard from powder you will need:

• 3/4 dl mustard powder (like Coleman’s, see note)
• 2-3 tbs oil
• 3 tbs white wine vinegar
• 2-3 tbs honey
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• some tepid water
• 2-3 tbs brandy or 1-2 tbs black currant jelly

Mix all the ingredients except the water and the jelly. Add the water gradually until you have a texture you are happy with. Let the mustard stand for a few minutes and check the texture again. If it is too dry add a drop or two more of water. Add the brandy or jelly to get a fuller taste. Jar the mustard and let it stand for a day or two to mature.

Note: there are 2 kinds, a fine, very yellow kind which is made entirely from yellow seeds and a coarser darker kind which is made from both kinds of seeds, they will both do. You will get a yellow, very smooth mustard with the first kind and a coarser mustard with the second kind.

Happy mustard making! Let me know how you get on.

This sounds so unbelievably pretentious that even I almost gag. I know. But what if I told you that home churned butter tastes a million times better than the store bought kind and only takes about 5 minutes to make? Are you still with me? Wouldn’t you like to try as well??

This whole crazy idea comes from a fellow foodie and blogger “kryddburken“. She writes in Swedish so I felt it was my sacred duty to share in English also. But to those of you who read Swedish, check out her stuff!

So to the butter. All you need for 100 g of pure, home made butter is:

• 3 dl (a bit more than a cup) fresh cream
  (NOT homogenized, processed, or any kind of long lasting cream, it’s gotta be fresh cream or it won’t work. Trust me. In Beijing I get it in a ziplock bag at the xinyuanli market. You Swedes can use vispgrädde.)
• about a teaspoon of good quality salt

THAT’S IT! Then you just whip the cream with an electric whisk until it goes stiff, then really stiff and then starts to separate.

NOTE: If you have been whipping for like 6,7,8 minutes and it just keeps being all shiny and whipped creamy, you have the wrong kind of cream. Enjoy it with hot chocolate or a piece of chocolate red wine cake and forget about the whole butter idea until your next trip to the market.

When you think you’ve ruined the whole thing and have lumps of butter swimming around in milky looking watery liquid you are done. Dump the whole thing through a fine-mesh sieve and squeeze the liquid out with clean, cold hands. You should also run it under some cold water to wash off all the separated liquid, this means it will keep longer. When you have your finished lump of butter, add salt to taste and enjoy.

If you have cream that has gone slightly sour, the butter will be better still. In theory, the butter keeps for a while. In practice, it will be eaten long before it comes close to going bad.

Serving suggestion: We had it today for breakfast with breakfast rolls right out of the oven and freshly squeezed orange juice. A breakfast fit for a king.