Tarragon Mustard

I once had a jar of vivid green french tarragon mustard. It was a large jar and it lasted me ages. So long that by the time I went back to the deli to buy another one, they had stopped stocking it. If I had known that they would stop stocking it I would have bought another couple for the cupboard. And if I had known that no one else stocked it I would have bought a boxful for myself and another for all of my friends. So for years (and I mean years) I have always wandered around new delis with a faint hope that I will come across another jar that is as vividly green and intensely tarragon. It hasn't happened so far. There have been other tarragon mustards but they have been mustards with a few old stringy tarragon leaves straggled through the mustard. Neither fresh, nor vivid nor intense. I planted tarragon in my herb box last year and it was looking decidedly average at the start of summer. Luckily I left it in peace and the warm, sunny weather of June has been just the thing to make the plant sprout in all directions with lovely fresh green shoots. And then I had a brainwave - Tarragon Mustard? I'll make my own! And that is what I did.

Now don't get me wrong, I didn't make the mustard. There was no grinding mustard seeds into a paste and then doing whatever else needs to be done to make mustard. I simply took two ingredients - tarragon and dijon mustard - and mixed them to make my very own vivid green and intensely Tarragon Mustard. And it is every bit as good as I remembered as a simple accompaniment to some roast free range chicken. Next up I will use it when I make a new batch of summery salsa verde (with capers, garlic, chives, parsley, olive oil and red wine vinegar) and we will have that to accompany just about anything.