Mustard

Why it earns its place

Few spices are as versatile as mustard. Warming and sharply pungent, it turns up as seeds, as oil, and as leafy greens, and each part carries its own character. It’s a winter crop, and across northern and eastern India the cold months bring both the seeds and the greens into their own.

Also known as: Sarson (Hindi and Punjabi), Rai (Gujarati and Marathi), Sarshapa (Sanskrit), Shorshe (Bengali) and Sorisha (Odia).

The many forms, and keeping them

• Black and brown mustard seeds are the pungent, everyday cooking seed of much of India.
• Yellow mustard seeds are milder, and the base of many pastes and pickles.
• Mustard oil is golden, sharp and warming, a defining flavour of Bengali and North Indian cooking.
• Mustard greens become the iconic Sarson ka Saag of Punjab.

Store the seeds in an airtight jar, away from light, where they keep for many months.

Cooking with it

I love the way Bengali cooking leans on mustard to build depth of flavour. Where much of India reaches for whole and ground spices, Bengali kitchens often work with spice pastes, and a ground mustard-seed paste is one of the classics. It coats vegetables evenly and gently, wrapping each piece in flavour without the constant stirring that can knock delicate vegetables about as they cook. Fried whole in hot oil the seeds turn nutty and pop; ground raw, they turn fierce and bright.

Traditional dishes to try

• Sarson ka Saag (Punjab), slow-cooked mustard greens, classically with makki di roti.
• Kasundi (Bengal), a pungent fermented mustard relish.
• Shorshe aloo (Bengal), potatoes in a bright mustard-seed sauce.

Good to know

Mustard is warming and pungent, so a little goes a long way, and raw mustard paste is especially fiery. Enjoyed as food it’s a joy; as with any spice, concentrated extracts are a different matter.