It can’t be easy being horseradish: you’ve been given a daft name*, most folk only experience your devilish delights from lousy plastic sachets served with beef, and then along comes wasabi to steal your fiery thunder. But we think it’s time to give the hot stuff the credit it deserves.
For starters, it’s easy to grow – unlike wasabi, which is a temperamental grower even in its native Japan. In fact, horseradish is so easy to grow that its roots can quickly multiply and take over your whole plot or garden. Careful allotmenteers harness this rapid coverage and use it as a weed barrier against their precious crops. The rest of us are better off sticking it in a large pot.
But perhaps the most surprising thing about horseradish is you’ve probably eaten more of it than you realise. Wasabi – which has a near identical flavour and heat giving properties – is so expensive that manufacturers of sushi dips and green coated nibbles frequently use horseradish and green colouring instead, labelling their wares ‘wasabi flavouring’. Disgrace!
So, we think it’s time to back the horseradish.
We demand that…
• Posh TV chefs do their utmost to raise awareness of the recalescent root.
• Supermarkets stock fresh horseradish so the public can further appreciate its explosive powers.**
• Food manufacturers RENAME ALL WASABI PRODUCTS with HORSERADISH when it is the predominant ingredient in the flavouring.
If you would like to join us in our campaign to BACK THE HORSERADISH, then please leave a comment below.
*Perhaps some fancy dan marketeers could give it a more appealing name? Like they did for pilchards when calling them ‘Cornish sardines’.
**For example, you could steep some of our roots in booze for a fantastic, sinus busting horseradish vodka. Yes, you really could…
Back the Horseradish and scrap the Wasabi – the horseradish on my allotment was so strong when I dug it up and grated it last month that I had to use a snorkel to finish processing it! I was crying. Fantastic stuff, and what a horse-kick! Excellent in mash, with smoked fish, piled on cheese, and I hear horseradish ice-cream is rather good. Can’t wait to try your horseradish vodka next…
Horseradish ice-cream? I’ll have to track down some of that…!
YES, get the supermarkets to stock it. The only way I get it is by digging it up from the roadside and. I don’t always have a spade in the boot.
The bottled sauces are as hot as a British winter, no heat at all.