A friend of mine once told a story about being on the road and stopping for dinner at a somewhat remote restaurant. Asking if they had honey mustard salad dressing, the waitress was quite accommodating; she brought a pot of mustard and a jar of honey to the table.
Voilà! Honey mustard dressing. Sort of.
Making your own honey mustard is just about as simple, though, and making your own allows a nice bit of customization based on which mustard you choose. Starting with a recipe from Alton Brown and the nice folk at foodnetwork.com, I whipped this little crock o’ goodness together in less time than it took me to decide between mustards and vinegars.
INGREDIENTS
•5 tbsp honey
•3 tbsp mustard
•2 tbsp vinegar
Whisk together in a bowl and serve. Simple, no?
Of course, Alton called for Sourwood Honey, smooth dijon mustard, and rice vinegar – none of which I happened to have on hand. HOWEVER – some Wisconsin No. 1 Extra Light Amber Honey, Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Ground Dijon, and some of Jewel’s finest apple cider vinegar came together to make a nice little condiment that Rich quite liked on his oven fried chicken; and wasn’t too, too bad as a dip for pretzels – a touch of sweet with just a hint of a bite.
Rich’s favorite jarred honey mustard is a bit lighter and sweeter, so I plan on trying a version with basic yellow mustard and, perhaps, getting some of that rice vinegar. For now, I think we have just enough of this batch left over to use as a glaze for this evening’s salmon and roasted brussels sprouts.