What, no recipe?

Dijon a la Creme - Creamy Mustard Sauce

This was a milestone -- good or bad. I think good. I'm calling this "Dijon a la Creme" (Creamy Mustard Sauce) but I'm guessing at the name because this wasn't a recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking and I don't speak French. Here's the story...

While our family was together for the Christmas holiday, my sweetie (Elizabeth) and the rest of the family decided to make all the different things that went into dinner. Not having much stove, or any oven, space available I still wanted to come up with something I could contribute to the dinner. Ham was on the menu and Elizabeth didn't want me experimenting with a new recipe (mmmmm, might have been a wise decision). I looked through the magic cookbook and didn't come across anything that seemed to be a do-able stand-alone recipe and then I had a flash of briliance, a veritable epiphany -- I could create a sauce for the ham slices that people could put on after they had a slice or two on their plate!

Uh oh. There wasn't a recipe. What was I going to do? I actually thought I could apply what I'd been learning over the past couple of months and create my own sauce. Still being a little leery about abandoning Julia completely, I did peek at Julias recipe for "Tranches De Jamon a la Creme" (Sauteed Ham Slices -- Fresh Cream Sauce) for a little inspiration. Here's what I pulled out of the recipe - mustard, shallots, tomato paste, cognac, and wine in a cream sauce. What I ended up using was Dijon mustard and then adapted by using white grape juice, white onion, and ketchup! What could possibly go wrong?

Knowing that all of my cream sauces have started out with a fat I put a tablespoon of butter into my skillet and started it melting while I was mincing my onion. I then sauteed the onions for a couple of minutes until they were softened but not browned. Then the fun part -- I added just under a cup of white grape juice and stirred it in with the butter and onions. The heat was turned up to high and I made some great smelling steam as everything was reduced (boiled off) until I was down to about three tablespoons of liquid.

Next, it was time to add the magic ingredient -- cream!! Two cups of cream were added and then about two and a half tablespoons of mustard were all stirred in. A tablespoon of ketchup was stirred in for good measure and to add a little color. The heat was then left medium high while I stirred it until it had thickened to a sauce like consistency.

I gotta tell you, this turned out realllllllllly nice. It actually tasted really good. It was yummy and I don't think there was anyone who didn't put it on their ham. When they had seconds, they also had even more sauce on it than the first time. Creamy, slightly mustardy, and nice to look at. That's the recipe -- there wasn't one and I didn't measure all that closely. Cooking is fun and I'm learning that I can tinker and it still works out. I hope you'll try making a sauce from scratch too!

Good luck and...

Bon Appetit!