My New Thing: Mustard Oil

One of the cuisines I've been obsessed with for over 12 years has been South Asian cuisine.  Over the years I went from adding every ground spice imaginable to a pot of simmering yogurt to realizing the differences between regional South Asian cuisines and refining my own spice mixtures and sauces to the point that I consider myself pretty pretty familiar with Indian cooking and cuisine.  Most of the dishes I try to make are from Northern India (Delhi and Punjab), as well as some Pakistani dishes.  I have also delved into southern Indian cuisines from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  One regional cuisine that I have yet to experiment with is Bengali cuisine.  I'm familiar with their spice blend called panch phoron that contains 5 spices usually consisting of cumin, fenugreek, fennel, black mustard, and nigella.  The cuisine of Bengal and surrounding regions uses a lot of fish, thickens foods with ground poppy seeds, is particularly famous for its sweets (gulab jamuns and rasgullas) and is very fond of mustard - good, strong mustard.  Bengali cuisine is also known for its use of mustard oil as a cooking fat, which is unique to the region.

I went yesterday to my favorite Desi (South Asian) grocery, Asia Grocery, to stock up on some supplies and decided that I should buy a small bottle of mustard oil and start experimenting with Bengali cuisine.  As I was putting away packages of spices, dals, food dyes, and syrups, I decided to open up the small bottle of mustard oil and give it a taste to see what I'd be working with.  Once the drop of oil hit my tongue, it was like a new culinary portal was opened to almost endless possibilities.  This is going to be one of my new ingredient obsessions!

Imagine an oil that tastes like dijon mustard or chinese mustard!  Imagine being able to infuse that flavor as a backdrop to complex curries, or adding a few drops into salad dressings.  For dinner this evening, I used up the last bits of cucumber and daikon radish for a quick relish.  I made paper thin slices of both vegetables and marinated them in a mixture of white vinegar, salt, cayenne powder, black pepper, and just a few drops of mustard oil.  It was a flavor explosion that went beautifully with the tartness of the vinegar and the spice from the cayenne powder.  I can only imagine what a dash of sugar would do to such a dressing!

Think of mustard oil the same way you would think of sesame oil - a few drops can really add a je ne sais quoi to whatever dish you're making and really pull everything together.  Look for it the next time you're shopping for South Asian ingredients