One of the things I used to love about sushi was the throat closing, sinus clearing, tears flowing burn of Wasabi. The hotter the better! Wasabi is made of the horseradish root, as is “horseradish” that we put on beef.

Horseradish – ready for liftoff!

You will never be able to buy a natural horseradish as spicy as the one you make.  Never!  From the minute you make it, it starts to loose its heat.  I make it and put it in small mason jars, so when I open the jar, it’s fresh every time.  Over months it will loose heat.  This will keep in the fridge for months, it just won’t be hot.  The more air in the jar, the more likely it is to spoil.  Luckily my husband “puts that shit on everything”.  He loves it in salads for a kick, puts it in a wrap, and anything beef!  I like it on borscht as well.

Sometimes I’m a child and when I buy a piece of horseradish I think it looks like a dong. I know – I’m such a child. Freud would have a field day with me!

When buying a horseradish root keep in mind that you have to peel it, and while funky shapes look cool, it’s an easy way to peel a layer of skin off your finger.  The harder the root the spicier it will be, so skip the soft roots as they are not as fresh or potent.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peeled and chopped horseradish root
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup of white vinegar (not pickling vinegar)
• Pinch of  sea salt

Put horseradish in the blender and add half the vinegar and start blending.  You will need your blender masher bit to push the horseradish down.  Keep adding vinegar until it starts to totally blend from top to bottom.  Once it is totally smooth, add the pinch of sea salt and blend for a few seconds more! TAHH DAHHH!

WARNING! DO NOT pop the lid off your blender and smell! It will blow your face off! 

If you don’t want to blow your face off, you can use water in place of vinegar, or a combo of the two.   Some recipes say you can use sugar to cut the heat, but why would I want to do that?