{recipe} Moutarde Le Bête Noire

A couple months back I posted about a condiment competition between me and my Dad. At the time, I made a black mustard, which I called Moutarde Le Bête Noire (“Black Beast Mustard”), and it was extremely pungent and spicy.

It turns out if you mellow this mustard in the fridge for about a week, it’s absolutely fantastic. Although it didn’t win the competition at the time, it’s now a family favorite. One of our newly learned tricks is to quickly saute green beans or asparagus and toss with this mustard before serving. It’s mellow, rich, and complex, and adored by mustard aficionados and skeptics alike.

You’ll need black garlic to get the full complement of layered flavor here- otherwise it will lack the depth. If you’re not familiar with black garlic, there’s more info in this post.

Moutarde Le Bête Noire

Makes 5-6 cups mustard.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cabernet sauvignon
• 2 cups red wine vinegar
• 12 cloves black garlic, smashed
• 2 cups brown or black mustard seeds
• 2/3 cup yellow mustard seeds
• 15 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 whole allspice
• 2 tsp molasses
• 2 T brown sugar

Method:

• Combine all ingredients and let sit for 24 hours at room temperature, loosely covered.
• Pour into food processor or blender and pulse until desired consistency.
• Put into jars and store in fridge for 5-7 days to mellow.
• If you plan to give all the mustard away and have it eaten within a couple of months, it will keep in the fridge. If you want to save it for the future, I recommend pressure canning it in jars.