Home-made mustard – Gourmet gifts for Christmas
Just two months before Christmas, before a very special Christmas, this year. I’ve always known that if there was a Christmas to be remembered, after the many jolly festive days of childhood, it should have been the Christmas of my 30 years. So here we are, just two months to go and I’ll know if my predictions were right!
I love the Christmas day, I love the thrilling feeling of an early awakening on a cold and orange-and-cinnamon-smelling day, I love all the feelings related to that very special day: generosity, hope, love, family.
Do you think I am predictable? Yes, I might have said the usual things, listing the well known feelings that everyone relates to Christmas. Isn’t this predictable sensation that makes special the magic of Christmas? You are perfectly aware of which kind of love will rise in your heart, but every year Christmas knows how to play with your expectations, surprising you and leaving that adorable childish awe in your eyes, where the Christmas tree sparkles yet another year.
If only this warm well-being could last a little bit longer, if only we could extent the well known happy mood and not tuck it into the decoration boxes along with baubles and lights, to rest in a dark attic for a whole year… would it be great? well, I’ll tell you a secret!
I have recently discovered how to make it last, how to enhance the smiling warmth related to the Yuletide. How? Make it an home-made Christmas. Don’t run into a last minute race to buy impersonal gifts that will cost you a fortune and won’t be as perfect as a well studied gift for your best friend, for your loved one or for your parents.
Make small gourmet gifts, choose the best ingredients and wrap them with ribbons and love, make your dears one feel they are special, grind and stir hope and happiness along with spices and chocolate, infuse serenity with mint to make a precious vinegar and do not forget to sprinkle all your gifts with magic. These will be special days to be remembered, giftwrap your time and make it precious for the people you love.
To make these following two recipes I took the inspiration from this useful post from Honest-food.net. Check it for detailed information about the chemistry behind home-made mustard and storing: it can be kept in the fridge for several months!
Home-made mustard
Ingredients
Fresh Herbs Mustard:
- 100 g of English mustard powder
- water
- 1 tablespoon of chopped chives
- 1 tablespoon of chopped tarragon
- 2 tablespoons of running honey
- 3 tablespoons of honey vinegar, can be substituted with apple cider vinegar
- 2 large pinches of salt
Walnut Mustard:
- 50 g of English mustard powder
- water
- 1 tablespoon of running honey
- 3 tablespoons of honey vinegar, can be substituted with apple cider vinegar
- 3 pinches of salt
- 50 g of shelled walnuts
Instructions
- Place the mustard powder in a bowl and stir in the water little by little until the mustard gets the desired consistency.
- Mix in the fresh chopped herbs or the minced walnuts, then season the mustard with salt, honey vinegar and honey to taste.
- Pour into a sterilized glass jar and store in the fridge. Wait at least 12 hours before using.
Do you know what makes me happy? I’m not the only one already packing and wrapping singing Jingle bells in a low voice, not to be taken for a crazy person! Vanessa from Prepped has even launched a contest, Let’s make Christmas 2011, to gather gourmet gift ideas to face with serenity Christmas and be ready with home made gifts well on time! I’m happy to take part to this initiative!
Here you can find other gourmet gift ideas from my blog and from my fellow foodie friends:
- bottle your spirit and make this red wine vinegar flavoured with mint and star anise,
- involve your children into the dirty work of shaping nutty chocolate & tahini truffles, change the spices, add cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel and ginger and make them even more festive,
- go wholesome and choose of the many healthy treats from Heidi’s 101 cookbooks, for example toasted almond sables cookies: you would make me happy with a box of these cookies with a red ribbon and a dessicated orange slice as decoration!
- be smart and vegetarian and make home made ketchup, following Jamie’s recipe or Gaby’s method,
- and obviously follow Vanessa’s contest Let’s make Christmas 2011 to discover many interesting ideas, just as her Sloe Gin.
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Lovely! I love homemade Xmas gifts.
Cheers,
Rosa
me too! Thank you Rosa
Beautiful and inspirational! I thought of a sweet presents but now I see savoury homemade presents would probably be even better!
Oh, and so gourmet! Yummy!
In the last few years I made sweet presents, this year I’ll try with savoury ones, just to give it a change!
Oh, I love Christmas time. This really makes a lovely gift!
Indeed!
I couldn’t be more in line with your feeling, thoughts and spirit. I love Christmas for its cozyness and warmth, and I try to make it last more through anticipation, by starting to think of small presents and home-made ideas to make on my own, slowly, one day after the other, until Christmas’ Eve arrives. I love your mustard and the whole idea. Sympathetic.
I knew we were twin souls! 😉
These look like they’d be great on a cheese board. I’m going to try the walnut mustard right away! I’m wondering how long they would keep, and whether they’d need refrigeration.
I’ve been making custom spice blends and putting them in clear pepper grinders to use as host and hostess gifts through the season, here…
http://theviewfromthegreatisland.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-spice-blends.html
thank you for the link to the custom spice blend, sounds perfect for Christmas!
I updated the post with a link to a very useful post, you’ll find all the information about mustard and storing, but basically you can store it in the fridge for several months!
What a lovely post Juls, so magic!
You’ve made me feel christmassy already 🙂
Last year I made some edible gifts as well, but now I want to try something new…thanks for your delicious idea!
This is a fantastic idea! I’m absolutely bookmarking this and can’t wait to see what other homemade gifts pop up during the contest 🙂 Buzzed!
Oh this is so utterly fabulous and different ! I am going to have to make this !!
Vanessa
I love Christmas gourmet gifts… I especially love making them! For this Christmas I made some cotognata, a lot of different jams and some cugnà . But I’m planning on make some truffles, too.
Last year vinegar (your vinegar) was a success!
Pretty as can be… I bet they taste even better!
Last year the adults in the family decided we had too much STUFF. So, a decree went out that the only gifts that could be given had to be homemade. Seriously, it was the best Christmas ever. I have saved these recipes and will start working on this year’s gifts soon. (Thanks for the jump start.) And, I am checking out Vanessa’s site now.
What a lovely idea–and a good reminder to get working on gifts!
What a STUNNING idea! I’ve had good mustards and regular mustards and a good mustard is a thing of beauty! I love it! Buzzed!
Mmmm. A friend recently told me once you start making your own mustard you’ll never buy it again. So I’ll have to try one of these tasty looking recipes! Thanks!
How wonderful! I love mustards, my family always had minimum 5 open at any time. I think I’ll try this to gift to my parents, they’ll adore it. My mom has a weakness for walnuts, anyways!
What a great idea! I generally think of sweet home made gifts but savory gifts sound like a wonderful change of pace! I have a large family; there’s usually 17 of us celebrating the holidays together and you’ve given me a great variety of unique ideas. Thanks so much!
This is such a heartfelt and sweet post. Love all your pictures. Adore the recipe. Congrats on top 9!
Oh what a divine post. I Love the photo’s and I’m so excited that you are doing the Let’s make Christmas. I’m going to write a sister post to this and make my own too!
Thank you so much!
Vanessa
Love the thought of making home made mustard for Christmas presents. Although I have to say I am no where near ready to start thinking about Christmas yet, but when I am, I’ll have to come back and check this out 🙂
My dear, I’m always in a hurry but this time I really wanted to stop for a sec and leave a comment. I love this post. The recipe. An the pics. And the “looking forward to Christmas” feeling, which I cherish just as much as you do.
Xoxo
Jas
Stuning!! This is sooo nice, tnx for the recipe 🙂