Whole Grain Mustard Pan Sauce Recipe

After making my own whole grain Dijon mustard, it wasn't long until I wanted to use it to make a completely new sauce. While the necessity to use up my ingredients and maintain space in the fridge is the main driver of this behavior, it tends to be when I come up with some of the most interesting and delicious concoctions.

This sauce upheld that trend, and I was proud that it was built mainly from ingredients I happened to have on hand, combining them in a standard pan sauce method until I had something that was worthy to top a pork tenderloin that I had cooked to a beautiful rosy medium-well.

After the tenderloin was done, which left a nice fond that would later get picked up in the sauce, I sautéed shallots in butter, followed by the addition of flour to create a roux. Then white wine, chicken stock, and mustard were added and cooked until thickened enough to coat a spoon. At this point the sauce was a bit harsh and slightly bitter; the addition of heavy cream helped that out, and a final splash of lemon juice brightened up an otherwise very heavy-handed sauce.

With the sauce spooned over the sliced pork, with a side of asparagus, the meal came together very well. The sauce had a deep mustard flavor with an added richness from the wine, stock, and cream that was a strong complement to the pork, but not so overpowering that it hid the flavor of the meat itself. It made me happy that I had put together the Dijon just a week before, because otherwise, this pan sauce probably would have never been on my radar.