Pickled Mustard Seeds

To continue on with my pickling obsession, I came across this recipe for Pickled Mustard Seeds. It sounded easy and I happened to have most of the ingredients on hand. I decided to tackle this while I was waiting for the cable guy yesterday - NOT something I wish to discuss at this time - needless to say I have no cable and am significantly irritated at Comcast at this moment.

The recipe calls for 1/2 cup mustard seeds, since I was stuck at home, all I had was 1/4 cup but decided to go ahead with the recipe anyway. Also, I don't have any white wine vinegar or rice wine vinegar so used a mix of red wine and apple cider vinegar instead.

First you pickle the mustard seeds at room temp for 1 hour. Turns out a bowl of vinegar on the counter is a great trap for fruit flies - which I happen to have a multitude of since I started with the kombucha, which I have officially stopped making. I wasn't drinking it fast enough and it turned into a chore - tells me it's time to stop.

After soaking, add tumeric, white pepper and red pepper flakes (and fish out the flies). Also agave instead of honey - I added a bit more since I was using a more pungent vinegar. Put on stove and simmer for 20 min, then let cool to room temp.

At this point, the recipe states you should add an additional 1/4 cup vinegar. I didn't since I started out with less mustard seeds. Apparently they will continue to soak up the vinegar while in the fridge and you can add more vinegar at that time.

After spending the night in the fridge, I tasted the result - definite vinegar punch (would probably be less if I used the white wine vinegar) but not too much hot from the mustard seeds themselves. Interesting. I have a pasta that I made for the freezer that is "missing something" and this might be that. Also I've been making tuna salad for lunch lately and this might be a good addition as well. I guess use it anywhere you would use mustard - on a pork loin would be nice.