My sister-in-law, Tracy, traveled to London this past summer and found this German Fig-Apple Mustard she sampled in a small store there. She sent me a picture of it and we started talking about me making it. She described flavors, sent me a pic of the ingredient label, which my German friend, Ute, and I translated.
Ute and I compared recipes, and some of our own ideas based on the label, and this is the result with figs, fresh apples, organic apple juice, apple balsamic vinegar, grainy mustard, cardamon, allspice and course-ground black pepper. I think I'm pretty darn close and OMG is it ever good.
It's a bit different than a standard mustard as any of the recipes we found that seemed close to the original, all called for a gelling agent, which to me translated to Sure-Jell (powdered pectin used in canning jams). After a bit of trial and error, this is my result for this amazing mustard. It's sweet, yet tangy, and has the wonderful taste of figs and apples mixed with the sweet spices and mustard.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups fresh or frozen whole figs, stemmed and quartered (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 cups organic apple juice
1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups grainy mustard (Bavarian mustard, or any spicy brown mustard like this Bourbon Brown Sugar Mustard )
1/2 cup apple balsamic vinegar or any white balsamic vinegar
2 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp course-ground black pepper
2 packages Sure-Jell (powdered pectin)
2 cups sugar
Method
Mix the quartered figs and diced apple with the apple-juice and bring it to a boil. Let it simmer (with the lid on the pot) for about 10 minutes. Pour mixture into a blender and puree).
Return mixture to saucepan and add the 2 packages of Sure-Jell, mustard, vinegar and spices. Cook over high to medium-high heat, stirring often, bringing to a boil. Add the sugar all at once, return to a full rolling boil and let it cook 10 minutes stirring often to prevent sticking. Fill prepared jars, cover with lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes.
Remove jars and let cool on a kitchen towel on your counter-top 24 hours. Jars are sealed when button on top of lid is fully depressed and will not move up and down. Store jars in pantry up to one year. Opened jars should be refrigerated. Serve with a cheeseboard, or use with any grilled/roasted poultry, pork or ham, or slather some on hearty sandwiches.
Yield: approx. 7 half-pint (8 oz) jars
Enjoy,
Mary