I wasn't sure what I could make for this months Can-Jam Herb theme, I was a little stumped. The only thing that kept coming to mind was mint jelly... and I'm not exactly a fan. So I remembered a post from last months Allium Can-Jam for a Garlic & Lemon mustard.. I loooove mustard, and have quite a few different jars on the go at one time, but I have never tried making my own, until now.
After flipping through my books I landed on a recipe that sounded like it would be a winner, Lemon, Sage and white wine. The only adaptation I made was replacing a 1/4 cup of the yellow mustard seeds with brown, simple reason... I was short on yellow mustard seeds and had a bunch of brown seeds on hand.
Lemon Sage & White Wine Mustard
(adapted from The Complete Book of Home Preserving)
Ingredients:
1 bunch of fresh sage
3/4 cup of Dry White Wine (I used a Chardonnay)
1/2 cup of Yellow Mustard Seeds
1/2 cup of Brown Mustard Seeds
1 cup of White Wine Vinegar (must have at least 5% acidity)
Grated Zest & Juice of 2 Large Lemons
1/2 cup of Honey
1/4 tsp Salt
This recipe yielded 5 - 125ml Jars
1 - Finely chop enough sage leaves to measure 1/3 of a cup and set aside.
2 - Coarsely chop remaining sage leaves and stems to measure 1/2 cup and place in a stainless steel saucepan with the wine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring and pressing the leaves to release their flavours. Remove from heat, cover and let it steep for 5 minutes.
3 - Transfer sage infusion to sieve placed over a glass or stainless steel bowl and press the leaves with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid. Discard the solids and return the liquid to the saucepan. Add the mustard seeds . Cover and let them stand at room temperature until the seeds have absorbed most of the liquid, about 2 hours.
4 - Prepare canner, jars and lids.
5 - In a blender (or food processor fitted with a metal blade), combine the marinated seeds and liquid with vinegar. Process until blended and most seeds are well chopped, I kept a slightly grainy texture.
6 - Transfer mixture back to the saucepan and add lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, salt and reserved chopped sage. Bring to a boil over high head, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and boil gently, stirring frequently, until volume has reduced by a third, about 20 minutes.
7 - Ladle hot mustard into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Process jars for 10 minutes.
