Ingredient Spotlight: Vermont Maple Mustard

Sometimes a single ingredient can give an otherwise mediocre dish real depth of flavor.  In an effort to share some of these transforming ingredients with you, I'm kicking off a segment of our blog that I'm dubbing Ingredient Spotlight.  This ingredient might be an unexpected spice, herb, or seasoning; a traditional ingredient used in a surprising way; or, as is the case today, a premade product.

One of my more recent surprising discoveries came at Kroger via their Private Selection brand--Vermont Maple Mustard.

It looks so unassuming.  (And lonely?)

The maple syrup in this mustard gives it a delicious sweetness that is reminiscent of honey mustard, yet it contains practically no fat or sugar.  Truly, I'm not even sure I can go back to normal mustard; everything I've paired it with has been amazing.  Grilled cheese sandwich with a smear of this?  Excellent.  Hot dog with a drizzle of this and some caramelized onions?  Divine.  However, my favorite dish so far has to be the one I'm sharing below.  Please enjoy.

Recipe:  Mustard Glazed Salmon with a Kale and Cabbage Side

Preheat your oven to 400°F.  While it preheats, you're going to start up the side dish.  Here are the ingredients you'll need:

The mustard has friends!

First up, you'll want about 8 ounces of Kale leaves.  Place them in a large sauté pan (with a lid, which you'll be needing later) and drizzle them with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

 

I love how vibrant it looks pre-wilting.

I know it looks like a lot of kale, but it cooks down quite a bit.  Trust me.  Now, sauté the leaves on medium heat until wilted.  This should only take a few minutes at which point they'll look like this:

Whoa.  Shrinkage.

While the kale is wilting, you can proceed to chop up the red cabbage.  I've roughly chopped about half a medium head of red cabbage here.

It really is a colorful dish.

Once the kale is wilted, add the cabbage to the pan.  It is at this point that I season the veg with some salt.  Then, you'll add red wine vinegar and water to the pan.  I added about 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp.) of vinegar and probably half a cup of water.  You can add more or less vinegar according to your taste, but you'll need enough liquid in the pan for a proper braise.  Remember, you can always cook off some of the excess liquid at the end (or reduce it into a glaze), so it is generally better to use more liquid than necessary rather than not enough (in order to avoid burnt kale/cabbage).  Once you've added the liquid, cover the pan, reduce the heat to just below medium and let it simmer away for about 15 minutes.

Braising veg

Now that the side dish is under way, it's time to start the salmon.  Here are the ingredients needed:

There aren't that many...

In addition to the mustard and the non-stick spray, that's a 7 oz. salmon fillet.  The one I purchased had some pulverized almonds on it which you're welcome to recreate or not as you please.  Meanwhile, the cooking process for the fish couldn't be easier.  I spray a piece of foil with non-stick cooking spray, I place the salmon on the foil, and I wrap it into a neat little package.  Then, I throw the package on my pizza stone in the middle rack of the now-preheated oven and voilá.  I'm generally terrible at estimating fish cooking times, but the label suggested 15 minutes, so that's how long it stayed in the oven.  (You can't fault me for not following directions at least.)

Salmon packet

At this point, you have a few minutes to clean up if you'd like.  However, you'll be using whatever you used for a cutting board again shortly to dice an apple and, really, it's probably better if you go ahead and have a glass of wine while you wait on the timer to beep.

Ahh...

Just before the braising vegetables have reached the 15 minute mark, peel and dice an apple.  I used a Gala, but any sweet apple will suffice.

I macédoine with the most average of them...

Once the kale and cabbage combo has been braising for about 15 minutes, remove the lid, add the diced apple, add a couple tablespoons of the Vermont Maple Mustard, mix accordingly, and let the dish continue to cook a few minutes as needed to remove any excess liquid from the bottom of the pan.  You should probably also taste a bite at this point to determine if it needs additional seasoning.

Eating with my eyes even as I post this hours later

The dish's star ingredient

By this point, the salmon should be ready to come out of the oven.  When it comes out, I glaze it with a tablespoon of the mustard and toss it back in the oven (go ahead and turn off the heat) with the packet uncovered for a minute or so to heat the mustard through.  Then, it's time to plate up.  I sprinkled the salmon with some fresh lemon verbena because I could.

Mustard smear

The finished dish

Well, that's it for our first ingredient spotlight.  Feel free to try out this recipe, but also let us know if you end up using this mustard in other applications.  I'm always looking for new ideas...

-John