Saturday 3 July 2010

HORSERADISH

  Garden & Horseradish-23

Horseradish grows well in our garden, it establishes itself very easily and will propagate like a weed if you leave any bit of root behind. It is best to leave the roots for a couple of years to get a reasonable size (medium carrot size), but if you can’t wait then by all means dig some up when the leave die back.

Processing is best done in a food processer or with a hand grater and is best done outside because of the extreme pungency of horseradish.

Horseradish

I have an old food processer which I use to grind chillies, horseradish, turmeric and any other pungent or stain producing food stuff.

Once grated I add a teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some apple cider vinegar, just enough to cover and moisten the horseradish. It is good to then spoon the mixture into to small sterilized jars, seal with a lid. Our horseradish lasted for 12 months in the refrigerator, but it started to lose some pungency after six months or so..

The horseradish prepared in this way is great to serve with meat or vegetables. You can add some to whipped cream or herb flavoured ricotta cheese to serve with smoked salmon and melba toast.

Horseradish has amazing health properties and is a great addition to any refrigerator medicine “kit”.

2 comments:

Olive said...

Thanks for the tip Maggie on the grinding bit. I'm now going to try doing mine in an old electric coffee grinder. I've been attempting to smash it up finely with a Bamix stick blender but it flies all over the kitchen bench. As well as sour cream I add a spoonful of Djon mustard and some finely chopped chives.
I couldn't wait for another year for mine to develop larger roots (remember I got mine from you at the Gnomes place) so I dug up several small ones.
Boy-oh-boy that stuff makes one feel like the original fire breathing dragon !!

Kate said...

The other night I roasted a baking dish full of veg. When I served it, I grated fresh horseradish over it and it was incredibly delicious!At first I only sprinkled on a little and added more and more as I got into eating it, until I found I had added it all!