Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Though a cognate for what comes out of a bright yellow squeeze bottle, this relish has very little in common with that Easter egg-colored condiment. Mostarda is a chunky agrodolce (sour-sweet) sauce made with whatever fruit you have on hand and is a delicious topping for everything from cheese to roasted meats. 1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and diced 1 C morello cherries juice from 2 oranges 2 T raw organic honey 2 T vinegar (I used a cherry balsamic vinegar) 2 t water 1 t ground mustard 1 T brown mustard seeds 2 pinches sea salt flakes In a large flat-bottom pan, place all of the ingredients - except the salt flakes. Whisk in the ground mustard until completely dissolved. Simmer for 50-60 minutes, until the fennel is almost translucent and the sauce syrupy. To finish, season with salt. You'll be seeing this on top of warmed brie for the appetizer course of my mom's birthday dinner this week.

I am one of thirteen bloggers who has received copies of the Rinku Bhattacharya's new cookbook  The Bengali Five Spice Chronicle s  from  Hippocrene Books . Over the next few weeks, I'll be cooking from, reviewing, and giving away a copy of the book . Tonight was my first dinner based on Rinku's recipes. The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles is a deceptively small volume, with less than 300 pages; once you crack the cover, however, you find yourself engulfed in fifteen chapters with multiple recipes per page. It was initially daunting, but my trepidation quickly transformed into giddy enthusiasm once I began to explore her recipes. Rinku's prose is vivid and colorful. I could clearly imagine "heralding the morning with the sound of a conch shell blown by the mistress of the house." Wait...I am the mistress of the house and I do have a conch shell. Hmmmm....I'm not sure the boys would appreciate that kind of wake-up call! And her recipes...let me just ...

Because one of my best friends is a hunter, I get gifts of meat, lots of meat. My boys call their Uncle Brian "the best killer in the family." For this fungi dinner Brian gave me some wild boar sausages. I put Jake to work, manning the grill, despite his protests that it was his party and he shouldn't have to cook. He also grilled some monster-sized portabella mushrooms. Then I topped the grilled sausages with a white truffle mustard that I ordered from gourmet-food.com. So, technically, I didn't do anything for this dish...Brian killed the boar and had the sausages made; Jake grilled them; but I did open the jar of mustard!

When I ran to WholeFoods at lunch to pick up some groceries for our Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant (feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales), I spotted a cheese with the label "Red Dragon."  As I moved closer I saw that it was actually from Wales.  So I promptly plucked it from the cooler and dropped it into my cart.  Taking its name from the symbol of the Welsh flag, Red Dragon is a blended cow's milk cheddar with whole mustard seeds and Welsh ale, and is coated in a bright red wax.  It's the perfect way to start our feast!