Veggie Challenge #5: Horseradish Root!

Ok people.  This is where the idea for the whole blog thing started.  We will have to take it offline if you want to know the story though, sorry.

Horseradish root.  Where do I begin?  Why, how about with a picture of this wonderful root vegetable?

I have no comment.

So when you think of horseradish, what comes to mind?  I don't know about you, but coming in a close second - right after the sauce my mom puts on her homemade flank steak sandwiches - I think of cocktail sauce.  Ohhhh yeah.  Just another lame excuse to eat seafood, I know.

So, I furiously scrubbed this guy with a veggie brush and then gave him a peel to see what his guts looked like.

Doesn't look like much, but let me tell you the aroma was unbelievable.  Just think of the freshest jar of grated horseradish you have ever bought at the store and multiply by a factor of about 75,345,445,106.  Let's just say I will never buy the stuff in a jar again.  Ever.  The other factor that makes me love it so much in its fresh form is the fact that I get to grate it with my trusty microplane and we know how much I love that.  (Yay!)

 I was taught that good cocktail sauce consists of three things: Heinz Chili Sauce, Horseradish, and Capers.  My dad would always add hot sauce because he was convinced that our horseradish had "died" a slow death in the fridge and was just not going to provide that nasal burning hot that cocktail sauce should have.  Well Dad, I have to tell you that while the fresh stuff is plenty hot and clearly better, I don't know that ours was always necessarily "dead".   I have, however, come to realize that, for some odd reason, I like my cocktail sauce atomic compared to what normal people eat.  Hmm.  Anyway, try it with the fresh stuff and you will never go back.  

Enjoy!