Красный Хрен - Red Horseradish

Though the first few nights of passover have passed, I wanted to share my recipe for Красный Хрен (red horseradish), a traditional condiment for gefilte fish and a staple for many passover meals.
I opened up the garden last weekend and my one harvest so far has been an over wintered horseradish root that was dug up for the express purpose of making a few jars of this tasty condiment.
Красный Хрен - Red Horseradish
1 horseradish root, washed, peeled and diced (or grated)
2 medium beets, peeled and boiled or roasted and diced (or grated)
4-6 oz white vinegar (enough to be absorbed in the mixture but not so much that it is swimming in it)
2-3 tsp sugar
salt & pepper to taste (if desired)
Directions:
Using a food processor or hand grater finely grate or dice the horseradish. Add the grated beets to the horseradish (to ensure there is a good amount of heat let the horseradish sit in a covered container for a few minutes before the beets are added). Mix thoroughly and add a few teaspoons of sugar. Taste and adjust to desired heat or sweetness.  Add enough vinegar to absorb into the mixture, and mix very well. Transfer to jars, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator until needed.
That is it. I wouldn't make this too far in advance as the horseradish will lose it's heat and intensity over time. For a more intense flavor use more horseradish and less of everything else! The lack of exact measurements in this recipe should serve as a general guide. The key to a good horseradish (red or white)  is to bring out the intensity of the horseradish without drowning it in vinegar. The recipe here yielded about 2 1/2 cups of red horseradish goodness.

Be sure to also check out my directions for making a traditional (white) horseradish.

Making & Storing Horseradish

 The photo on the left shows the biggest or gnarliest pieces of horseradish I pulled from the ground. I tucked away more then enough root stock to replant some fresh in the spring, and have been making batches of horseradish here and there with different meals. It's a ridiculously easy process. If you are use fresh dug horseradish I recommend peeling the larger pieces and rinsing them small ones as best as possible.
Horseradish root is really interesting. If you manage not to pierce the outer skin of the root you will barely notice an aroma. Once you cut, grind, or expose the root it starts to breakdown and the cells release an extremely pungent and flavorful oil we know as horseradish!

diced horseradish ready to be ground

Homemade Horseradish:
3 oz horseradish root. cleaned and diced.
white vinegar I used 2.5 tbls
Place diced horseradish into food processor or mixer & grind and chop until the desired consistency is achieved. Add vinegar to neutralize the smell. The longer you let the ground horseradish sit before adding vinegar the stronger 'horseradish' flavor there will be. For a light flavor add more vinegar right away & for a strong flavor wait 4-6 minutes and add less vinegar.(note: make sure you are in a well ventilated room with a fan going and a window open, as the aroma given off is EXTREMELY strong. Strong enough that, like an idiot, when I disregarded this warning and took a big huge whiff off the lid of the grinder after running it, and resting it for 3 min. I instantaneously let out a huge yell and ran from the room. My sinus' haven't been that clear since my disco days!) Once vinegar added briefly process again. Pour off excess liquid and refrigerate.  The longer the horseradish sits the 'weaker the taste will be. However the 2-3 months at most it will be in the refrigerator shouldn't see much loss of flavor. It's great to mix with a favorite mustard or mayo to give it that extra zing!

result: 1 full jar + some extra

I store the extra horseradish wrapped in some newspaper in the freezer. When I need some I pull it out, peel  and dice what I need and return the rest to the freezer. I also have more then enough 'seed stock' to plant some of my own and pass a few off on others. I planted 5 of those things in a really small space, probably where I should have planted 2 or 3 tops so I got a good mix of big and small pieces. I cut some down to size and set them aside as seed stock after we initially harvested the 4 plants. 1 more is over wintering under straw in the hopes that I can dig some up fresh in April for Passover!
I cannot stress enough the warning that you should be in a very well ventilated room and preferably wearing a mask or dishtowel over your mouth and nose. When I got a big whiff of just the cap I screamed holy fuck that is hot and ran away in real pain. don't be like me, at least cover your mouth and nose with a t-shirt. you will smell the horseradish but it won't be nearly as painful.

Final Harvest Monday 10/24/2011

It's that time, the final harvest for 2011 was this past week. Aside from some leftover herbs we also harvested a fairly nice pile of horseradish:

The root on the far left of the above photo was definitely the biggest, coming in at about 6 ounces, it was about the size of a fairly large parsnip! I managed to save 8 good sized roots to plant  and pass on to others as well.
All in all I was able to pull nearly 1.4 lbs of horseradish root out of the ground!!! Given how deep the roots went, I don't think I managed to get them all, and it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few volunteer horseradish plants popping up next year.
Here's what made up the final harvest for 2011:
Chives 5.00 oz
Dill .35 oz
Marjoram .90 oz
Rosemary .75 oz
Sage 1.65 oz
Horseradish 1.3875 lbs (22.20 oz)
Total for the week: 1.93 lbs (30.85 oz)
Total for the 2011 growing season: 64.57 lbs!!
Just a hair under 3/4 of a pound more then we grew last year, which makes Gail very happy! I will have a recap and breakdown posted sometime next week.
All that is left to do in our little plot is clean up and put the garden to bed!

If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions, the home of Harvest Monday.

Long overdue harvest update! Monday October 10 2011

It's been a while! Due to traveling for weddings, Jewish holidays, and family gatherings we've barely had time to do much gardening and harvesting, but over the last 2 or 3 weeks we managed to harvest a nice little haul, including the below picture of our wonderful carrots that Gail and I are incredibly proud of! We pulled these up yesterday afternoon after some serious weeding. 

After many trials and tribulations we successfully harvested some really wonderful carrots, and not just 1 or 2, but a few pounds worth!!! I also pulled my 'tester' horseradish plant, it was the smallest of the lot because it was shaded out by the rest of the horseradish plants and other herbs, but it gives me hope - the remaining plants were easily 3 or 4 times larger then this one, so hopefully the roots will be a little bigger then what we brought home.

No complaints though, I still get to make a wee bit of horseradish with the 'tester' roots!

 Below is a look at the rest of the harvest over the past few weeks:

Swiss Chard: 11.45 oz

Tomato: 6.95 lbs (111.25 oz)

Radish: 2.65 oz

Carrots: 3.725 lbs (59.60 oz)

Rosemary: 1.25 oz

Dill: 1.0 oz

Sage: 2.35 oz

Mint. .10 oz

Horseradish .85 oz

Total for the last few weeks: 11.90 lbs (190.5 oz)

Total for the season: 62.75 lbs (1004.10 oz)

We are inching closer to last years total of 63.84 lbs. With only some herbs & horseradish plants left it is going to be a very close call if we hit the mark, but we are so close it feels good that we grew approximately the same amount in different quantities this year!

Opening Day!

Yesterday was Opening Day!!! Not for my beloved Boston Red Sox, but for my plot at the Fenway Victory Gardens, just behind where the Red Sox play! I retrieved all of the gardening equipment that we stored over the winter and Gail and I headed to the garden, wondering if anything would be alive.We were greeted with a lot of mud, wet fall leaves, and straw that we had used to insulate some of overwintering projects. Beneath the straw and leaves the garlic, walking onions, and chives were all flourishing! Below is one of the walking onions that had climbed through the straw in search o

f sunlight. The chives and garlic were both alive and ready for sun when we delicately pulled the soggy leaves and straw off of them.

We also brought along a bunch of herb seedlings we started on our windowsills as well as kale seedlings I picked up at Allandale Farm on saturday.

Picture above are the kale seedlings after we got them in the ground and pots with chives, garlic chives, marjoram, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil, flat leaf parsley, and a volunteer curly parsley. We are going to try leaving most of the herbs in the pots (except the chives we over wintered) and using the space that was occupied by last years herb garden to grow:

Horseradish! I ordered the above horseradish roots from Johnny's in the winter. They ship when it is an appropriate time to plant them in your given growing zone. The roots arrived in the middle of last week, and were kept in the refrigerator wrapped in damp newspaper until we planted them yesterday afternoon. Hopefully after the first fall frost I will be digging up enough horseradish to grow more as well as for a few batches of the delicious condiment.

In the coming weeks Gail and I will finish cleaning and preparing the plot for the growing season as well as planting, planting, and more planting!

Spring is back and so is the garden!