Thursday 21 May 2015

THE SECRET HELPER IN WEIGHT LOSS

I never liked it when I was a child. It is not surprise as my childhood's mustard tasted awful. I discovered mustard and its benefits first when I was on a weight loss diet. But I never knew that making home-made mustard is so quick and rewarding.








My childhood's mustard was so bland and so child-friendly that it tasted awful. So I hardly ever eat it until my 20's. I did not know that there are so many different types of mustard so there must be at least one what I like. Actually now I have more than one favourites and I use them all with different dishes.
This is not just all about the taste - mustard, like other spices, have health benefits too. Mustard is really important in weight loss - I would say it is a fundamental element.

Here is the list of the most important natural ingredients which help you to cleanse your body and lose weight: 


How can mustard help you to lose weight?


Mustard is a powerful natural cleanser and helps to speed up metabolism so you can get rid of fat quicker. I can recommend  adding mustard to sandwiches, warm and cold meat dishes, cheese boards, stews and salad dressings.


The main health benefits of mustard:


#1 Mustard speeds up metabolism, which means more effective fat-burning

#2 Mustard contains phytonutrients which protect against gastrointestinal cancer

#3 Mustard is high in sulphur and - as we know - sulphur has an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties which help to fight skin infections

#4 Mustard cleanses the body of toxins

5# Mustard wards off colds and flu, improves immunity

6# Mustard lowers cholesterol, cleanse the arteries

7# Mustard helps reduce constipation


Home-made mustard recipe - easy-peasy

So first time in my life I have decided to make my own mustard. I have procrastinated this for a while because I thought this must be something complicated. However recently I came across lovely white mustard seeds in the shop - 30g costed only 10p! So I bought a few sachet and they have been sitting on my worktop for a couple of days when I decided to make my own home-made mustard.
Okay, I throw away the first attempt... I altered the recipe a bit and...
The second one was much better. It was okay when I made it - but after a couple of days maturing I can say - this is the winner recipe!



It's vibrant, full-of-life taste and so much better than the shoop-bought versions.
And it was not complicated at all! It took about 10 minutes to make it.
You can make a smooth or a wholegrain version as well - it is depending on how long you leave the mustard seeds in the grinder.
You can also adjust the sharpness according to how hot you like your mustard.
I added some fresh herbs, you can choose your own favourites or emphasise one of them adding a bit more. For example, I can imagine a lovely tarragon-mustard adding more fresh tarragon to the recipe below.

So far, I have challenged my mustard with frankfurters, burgers and cheese - and I am absolutely delighted with the result.

As it does not contain any kind of preservatives - apart from the natural preservative vinegar, - it needs to be kept in the fridge. This recipe below gives you about 250 ml mustard, I think it can be consumed within 1-2 months. As I have just made my mustard, I cannot give you an exact expire date now, but this should be fine for 2 months. But I give you a feedback later.
So here comes the recipe:

Home-made mustard recipe



Ingredients


  • 50g white mustard (you can substitute a part of this amount - about 20g with black mustard seeds)
  • 50g white wine vinegar
  • 50g olive oil
  • 1 glove of garlic
  • A pinch of tarragon (fresh or dried)
  • 2 fresh rosemary leaves (take it easy, rosemary has a quite strong taste)
  • 1-2 springs of fresh thyme
  • 1 spring of fresh oregano (optional)
  • 50ml water
  • 1-2 tbsp honey
  • salt

Step 1
Put the mustard seeds in a spice grinder and whizz until you get the right texture. I left the seeds half-grinded because I like a bit crunch in it. As we whizz it with the hand blender later again, I would recommend to leave them just half-grinded. You can adjust the texture later.

Step 2
Put all the mustard with the remaining ingredients in the beaker of a hand mixer or in a measuring jug and using the hand blender combine until you get the required consistency.

Step 3 (optional)
If you find your mustard too hot you can relive its pungency boiling the mixture on the hob for 10-15 minutes.

Step 4
Scoop the mustard into a sterilized jar - let to cool to room temperature after boiling, and store in the fridge.

The mustard shows its best after 2-3 days maturing when all the flavours come together.

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