I love horseradish sauce. Not the anaemic, wimpish impersonation that sits on the supermarket shelves but the clear-your-sinuses-blow-your-head-off variety. The closest I have found in a shop had chilli added to it and although it was definitely hot it really did not have the depth of flavour that a really good, pure horseradish sauce has. So I make my own.
You can buy horseradish roots in some supermarkets and Farmers' Markets but it is so easy to grow it yourself. Actually, it is a bit too easy to grow. A word of warning if you intend to try this in your own garden or allotment: it will take over the whole area if you don't contain it in some way.
It will grow fine in a large pot but I find that I get the best results by planting it in a growing bag. I use a Marshall's Gro-sack (there are similar products from other suppliers), which is primarily marketed for growing potatoes but it is also almost perfect for horseradish. The only problem is - and this applies to pot grown horseradish as well - the roots will make a bid for freedom through the drainage holes! That is why I am relocating the sack to the concrete path. I do not want it taking over the rest of the garden. (Am I too late?)
Extracting the horseradish from the bag required serious effort. I assumed that as it was sort of contained in the bag it would be a case of just pulling on a couple of roots. Far from it. I had to excavate deep down into the bag before they would consider yielding to the spade (forget about a garden trowel - useless when trying to remove horseradish).
Preparing and grating the horseradish requires planning on an industrial scale. See my posting from 2015.
Once grated I tried a different approach from previous years to making the sauce. I recall my mother, when I was a child, mixing grated horseradish with sugar, salt and a little water in a jar and leaving it for a couple of weeks. Then she would add it to what I think was yogurt but could have been sour cream. I realise now that she was fermenting the horseradish. This year, I decided to try and recreate the process but instead of the sugar I added some grated parsnip. I checked on the mixture every couple of days to make sure that it wasn't going "off" and the smell and taste of it was superb. Strong but more depth and variety to the flavour than I have achieved in the past by using it straightaway. I added the fermented horseradish to some home made yogurt and we had the perfect horseradish sauce. Far, far better than any of my previous efforts.
You can buy horseradish roots in some supermarkets and Farmers' Markets but it is so easy to grow it yourself. Actually, it is a bit too easy to grow. A word of warning if you intend to try this in your own garden or allotment: it will take over the whole area if you don't contain it in some way.It will grow fine in a large pot but I find that I get the best results by planting it in a growing bag. I use a Marshall's Gro-sack (there are similar products from other suppliers), which is primarily marketed for growing potatoes but it is also almost perfect for horseradish. The only problem is - and this applies to pot grown horseradish as well - the roots will make a bid for freedom through the drainage holes! That is why I am relocating the sack to the concrete path. I do not want it taking over the rest of the garden. (Am I too late?)
Preparing and grating the horseradish requires planning on an industrial scale. See my posting from 2015.
Once grated I tried a different approach from previous years to making the sauce. I recall my mother, when I was a child, mixing grated horseradish with sugar, salt and a little water in a jar and leaving it for a couple of weeks. Then she would add it to what I think was yogurt but could have been sour cream. I realise now that she was fermenting the horseradish. This year, I decided to try and recreate the process but instead of the sugar I added some grated parsnip. I checked on the mixture every couple of days to make sure that it wasn't going "off" and the smell and taste of it was superb. Strong but more depth and variety to the flavour than I have achieved in the past by using it straightaway. I added the fermented horseradish to some home made yogurt and we had the perfect horseradish sauce. Far, far better than any of my previous efforts.
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| Fermented horseradish sauce |
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