Good for greens, and achy joints
The oil of the mustard seed (black, brown and white) is used all over India (though primarily in the Northern parts) for cooking. It is used for frying fritters as well as traditionally for all kinds of cooking. It’s spicy flavor has that piquant in-your-throat hit like wasabi or, perhaps not so strangely, hot mustard. While this can be good for cooking Indian dishes, we’ve found it really has a variety of uses:
1) Sprinkle it on your salad, or make a simple vinaigrette – no need to add anything other than mustard oil and vinegar.
2) Use it as a base for hot searing greens. This is what we do: Put a wok on high heat, drizzle in some oil (1 or 2 tbsp depending on how much greenery you’re going to add), let it heat up. Mustard oil has a fairly high smoking point, but don’t push it. When it’s hot enough, toss in some greens chopped kale, lacinato, aka dinosaur or black kale is our favorite for this – but collards, chard or other greens work too – give it a good sear on high heat, then turn it or shake it up. Try to give a good sear on all sides, but don’t cook too long. When the pan starts to get dry, add some vinegar (your choice – champagne is good) and a little salt. Shake/stir some more and serve. Mmmm.
3) Saute your Sunday morning hashbrowns in it.
4) Poach halibut in it. (Try Mario’s recipe, but substitute mustard oil for olive oil.)
You get the idea. In Ayurveda, the traditional health and lifestyle practices of India, mustard oil has a number of purposes – external as well as internal. It’s warming, so it’s good on sore joints. Apparently it’s been used before to maintain longer erections. Hmmm.
You may notice on the bottle a little comment that says “For external use only”. Don’t fret. This is because the U.S. and E.U. (and Canada, who is always copying us) have restrictions on erucic acid content in oils, however as long as you don’t give it to your infant (or your male rat), science seems to indicate that this is really not dangerous and most of this comes from an old study. In fact, mustard oil may even be good for cardiovascular health. If you’re concerned, the wikipedia link here covers it with links to actual studies.
$8
