Corti Brothers Newsletter for December 2002    Page 2 

KEEN'S HOT ENGLISH MUSTARD

In Australian recently, wine judging with "Mr. Australian Wine," Len Evans, AO, OBE, Len was enjoying a grilled steak and asked for some mustard to accompany it. He then turns to me and says: "Darrell, you like to know arcane trivia about food, here's some. Australian hot mustard is hotter than British mustard." I tasted some of his, which was Keen's and he was right. So I bought some. Now, our customers who are also mustard fanciers can taste it.

Keen's Hot English mustard is a brand that is one of England's oldest. The original firm was established in London in1742, just 22 years after a Mrs. Clements devises a method of milling mustard seed into a powder. The first to use a yellow and red colored label mustard yellow, of course Keen's was bought by its competitor Colman's in 1903. The term "keen as mustard" was used by the company to show its importance. A lot of dictionaries give this as the origin of the term, but in fact, the phrase "the keenest mustard" was in use by 1658. In any event, Keen's Hot English mustard is pretty flavorful, if not keen!

Keen's Hot English mustard is made with mustard seed, sugar, salt, spices, citric acid and water in this order. It does not have added wheat flour as do a lot of competitors. Keen's texture is silky, not at all gritty, and pungent. Once opened, it must be kept in the refrigerator. A hint to keeping mustard: smooth the surface of the mustard after using and before replacing in the refrigerator, wiping the jar top. This prevents the odd bit of mustard from drying out, crusting up, and becoming unsightly.

Previous to my experience with Len Evans, I had not tasted hot mustard with grilled meat. Now, I am taken by the harmonious synergy produced. It probably stands to reason. Since the British have been accompanying roast and grilled meats with hot mustard for a long time, something must be right.

BARDI PANETTONE TIME

It might even be possible to say "How do Italians know Christmas is coming? Panettone and Pandoro is available in stores." In Italy, these two fragrant, candied fruit filled (Panettone only) breads symbolize the Christmas holidays. For four years now, we have offered our own exclusive importation of Panettone and Pandoro under the Bardi label.

There are several different styles of the Panettone we offer: The traditional is available in both tall and low versions (the only difference is height.) There is another panettone, Panettone Veneziana, made with a slightly less buttery dough, but only with candied citrus peel; lemon, orange, citron and almonds with an almond paste glaze. We have another, Nocciolato, in the traditional low shape, glazed with hazelnut paste. The Senza Canditi, is in a tall shape, without candied fruit, containing only raisins. Pandoro is a Verona specialty, without any candied fruit at all.

Panettone and Pandoro are the desserts for the Italian holiday period. Served with a light, low alcohol, fruity fresh wine like Asti or Moscato d'Asti, Panettone and Pandoro are terrific as a holiday time snack. They are also terrific toasted for breakfast when the holidays are over and are only a memory. Both make wonderful bread pudding, especially in the late winter or early spring. All the Bardi products come in 1kilo (2.2 lb.) size

POSEIDONE-- A NEW RICE CULTIVAR FOR RISOTTO

Cold weather is risotto time. This creamy, flavorful rice dish, so typical of northern Italy can be created in myriad ways. The basic ingredient is a starchy, high amylose content, short or medium grain rice. Long grain rice does not make a good risotto. Poseidone is a new, patented variety named for the mythological god of the sea, Poseidon. This is fitting since the Italian saying is: "Rice is born in water, but dies in wine," from the fact that the first liquid rice gets in risotto making is wine, which, once evaporated, is followed by broth.

Poseidone is a superfino variety; that is, a "bold grain" size in the medium grain rice category. We have labeled our Poseidone rice Le Mondine, to remember the women who hand worked Italy's rice fields. Agriculturally, Poseidone is interesting since it grows with a short stem, greatly preventing lodging and ripens early, thus avoiding fall rains. Culinarily, it has more amylose (starch) than Arborio (23.8% versus 19.6%), and cooks in a shorter time. Thus, easier to grow and faster cooking, should give Poseidone a leg up on the older variety Arborio.

Poseidone is packed in 2 kilo bags made out of the bolt remants of very high quality cotton cloth used for fine table linens or sheeting. The remnants from cloth mills are washed, then sewn to create the sacks. When the rice is used up, the sacks can be reused or opend to create small towels. This use of cloth remnants is also traditional since the Lombard/Piemonte area has a lot of cloth mills.

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