HORSERADISH

The farm has lain uninhabited now for over two years. As the garden returns to nature, reclaiming the manicured land for its own, surprising things are happening. Roe deer are sleeping in the rhododendrons. Green woodpeckers are yaffling in the trees for the first time.

This year the magnolia burst out in waxen flowers the garden never dreamed of. And the orchards are laden, the abandoned fruit trees weighed down with fruit. Most of it has fallen to the field mice and wasps but I’ve managed to collect a few trug loads of apples, pears, plums and damsons. An unexpected encounter has been with a vast horseradish plant towering in a corner that was home to the compost heap. My memory is that you have to move horseradish every year anyway, so I found an old garden fork and howked out a vast root.

It’s a delicious vegetable if used with caution. Fresh horseradish cream gives a Russian edge to a slow cooked beef stew. There they use it as an accompaniment to freshwater fish like bream and perch. There's an Austrian dish called krenfleisch, which is boiled pork with carrots, celeriac and parsley. It's usually served in a soup plate, with some of the pork broth, the cooked vegetables and lots of freshly ground horseradish. But you have to be careful. In overdose horseradish blows the frontal lobe synapses open which is just great for clearing the sinuses but can be a little unpleasant. One way of lessening the fire is to add some white wine vinegar as it is grated.

I add a little to a Bloody Mary for that extra punch. In Summer Cooking, David has a fine roast chicken salad with fresh horseradish mayonnaise. Remove the meat from the bird and mix it with cooked or finely sliced raw mushrooms and boiled potatoes. Add the mayo and on top arrange the lettuce hearts, prawns, crumbled egg yolk and invite some mates round for a farewell to summer lunch.

As a member of the mustard family, a little horseradish goes a long way. If you do buy a root, the best thing is to chop it into 5cm chunks and store them in the freezer to retrieve as and when you need it.

TENDER WORDS

Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.

23 May, 2010

FOOD FROM THE HEART

Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to let others take control of what we eat.

21 April, 2010

IN A RIGHT FISH STEW

This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming from your pot.

15 March, 2010