All about mustard, raifort, horseradish, wasabi…

Let’s start with mustard…
Making your mustard is not necessarily economic, but it’s fun and you can customize it. La moutarde au raifort (horseradish mustard) is a fancy Alsacian variation, probably of recent invention for the bobo market. I love bobo food…

I can’t find the black mustard seeds, nor the fresh horseradish.

So this is my moutarde au raifort (horseradish mustard). Yum…. ouuuuchhhh. Refreshing !

le raifort :

The horseradish condiment is something people, well civilized ones, always keep in the fridge in Lorraine. It’s nice to propose this condiment with pot-au-feu or cold meat or smoked fish, or whatever.
But they usually buy it. I can’t get it in Osaka. Or that would cost the moon.

We have karai daikon. Mini daikon with super strength.

Clearing vocabulary confusions.
I. In French this root is sometimes called raifort. And horseradish is called raifort. And no, that’s not the same but close enough.

raifort/horseradish from wikipedia

II. In Japanese, horseradish is called wasabi, but real wasabi is not horseradish and maybe your wasabi is not real wasabi.
Well, there exist hon-wasabi (本わさび, real-wasabi）is Japanese wasabi, an aquatic plant, it is naturally green :

fresh daikon root

And seiyou-wasabi (西洋わさび, Western-wasabi) is horseradish, it’s white, unless they add coloring :

(Letters moved by themselves at reformating… grrr)
The composition of this powder is “horseradish, food coloring, vitamin C”.
The reason is producing wasabi is more costly than producing horseradish, so cheaper products are imitation…
In powder that’s always horseradish. In tube, in Japan, it’s often real wasabi, but in other countries it’s horseradish most of the time. Check the labels.

Conclusion : I have powdered horseradish. Yeah !

So this is my “raifort”, made with a little real horseradish powder, my “mustard” and grated strong daikon.

Le poulet de Gaston – Dijon chicken

This is a retro dish, totally addictive.
Gaston Gérard’s chicken. Who ? What ? Why ?

Cette recette a été réalisée pour la première fois en 1930 par l’épouse du maire de Dijon, Gaston Gérard, pour Curnonsky, gastronome, humoriste et critique culinaire français.

Source

Well, this Mr Gaston Gérard was a politician that was mayor of Dijon in Bourgogne before the war. And he remains famous for the recipe his wife created in 1930 for their friend Curnonsky, the famous culinary writer. You know the guy that invented KISS (kook it simple and slurrrrp ).

The recipe showcases great produce you can find in Dijon.
A recipe in English.
I prefer simmering longly the chicken in wine and using the broth for the sauce.

The secret of the creamy and cheesy sauce is moutarde de Dijon.

To make it look honest… Veggies poached in the broth. Shimonita negi leeks and mushrooms. That’s healthy. Well, the veggies are. Note that Gaston lived into his 90’s with his creamy diet.

If you want a lighter version for Summer, with coconut cream :

poulet Dijon-Tahiti (click here)

If you made too much, you can later make a wonderful toast.

Salade de lentilles au saumon d’automne (via GiO)

LY :

Salade de lentilles au saumon d’automne d’Hokkaido. A French lentil salad with Autumn salmon…

Poulet Dijon-Tahiti + Sweet Corn Sweet Rice (via Gourmande in Osaka)

L.Y.

It's the end of O-bon, the season when Japanese ghosts visit friends and relatives… What if we made a French foodie ghost turn himself in his grave ? I'm calling M. Gaston Gerard, mayor of Dijon many decades ago. He was famous for his recipe of chicken with mustard and cheese. I adapted the recipe, slightly… (I suppose now the tombstone is starting to rise…) For instance, for a start, let's replace the cheese by coconut cream. LOL (the ston … Read More