Mustard!

Take a look at my spicy French-style grainy mustard, shot food porn style with the macro setting on and the camera practically touching the food. That's the way I like it.

I had some brown mustard seeds looking like they had been hanging around too long and I wanted to eat them rather than toss them. So, following Bittman's HTCE loosely, I ground these (1/4 cup) corsely and mixed them with enough white vinegar to make a paste. Then I combined half that quantity of yellow mustard powder (Coleman's, 2 tbs) with enough cold water to make a paste. The Coleman's tin stresses that the water must be cold. The next part only makes sense when you do it: you combine the seed paste and the powder paste and add enough wine, beer or water to make a...a paste. I added dry sherry, which is what was open in the fridge. The recipe warns you to wait a day before eating it. I don't understand the science behind it (the vinegar/water thing, the waiting), but hot damn, it's good and spicy. Goes well with pretzels, Gruyère-style cheese, and probably a thousand other tasty things. One of these little turkey and mustard canapés is enough to clear out the nasal passages but if you have one you will probably have another.