[Sca-cooks] horseradish fries

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Philippa Alderton:

>Well, Stefan, most people don't like intensely spicy
>things, and in your area, when people think about Hot
>Things, quite understandably, hot peppers tend to come
>to mind. Most of the sauces that you get are in a
>mayonaisse base, the intention being to cut the heat,
>and get the light horseradish flavor.

Then again, heat is a pretty subjective thing. I will always remember
the day I saw a sort of Central Casting Texan in a Chinese restaurant
in New York (note: _not_ in Chinatown, or what ensued would have been
worse), informing the waiters that in Texas, they like their food
spicy, so he should just prepare everything as hot as he (the waiter
and, I guess, the cooks) liked it, and then crank it up a couple of
additional notches. The waiter did a double-take, then sort of
shrugged. What followed was one of the most enjoyable floor shows I
have ever experienced, with entertained but well-wishing fellow
customers showering the poor man with admonitions to drink his tea,
eat his rice, etc.

I think the mayonnaise base for commercial horseradish sauces (Arby's
comes to mind as one of the Evil Innovators in this case) is largely
a shelf-life improvement.

>
>>  I had forgetten that they
>>  were
>>  dipped in buttermilk and flour before frying. So,
>>  this
>>  might cool down some of the sharpness of the
>>  horseradish.
>
>Well, horseradish is like hot peppers, in that it
>comes in various shades of hotness, like hot peppers
>(but, I believe, the same plant will vary
>considerably, depending on how much rain is received-
>less meaning it tends to be hotter) but like mustard,
>will get milder as time goes on. My preference, when
>preparing it, is to clean the roots, grate them, and
>liquify them a bit with a decent flavored vinegar, and
>use immediately. Rather than eating them plain, I like
>to have them as a go-with, and use them as the
>condiment on crackers and cheese, or with rare roast
>beef.

That same grated root, with or without the vinegar, is also good with
sour cream as a roast beef sauce.

>(FWIW- I do not in the least think Stefan is an idiot-
>on the contrary, he's a very intelligent man and a
>much loved and trusted friend, who simply hasn't had
>much experience with cooking. Whenever I run into
>something which might help him in his efforts to
>learn, I try to teach him, as I did with the Lobster
>at 12th Night.)

Yeah, Stefan loves to do that
Will-Rogers-who-only-knows-what-he-reads-in-the-papers stuff, but the
fact is he performs a useful service. You can count on him to find
the flaw in any argument or the weakness in any explanation. He
pretends that this is because he is a bear of very little experience,
but I know better. I tend to think of him (quite respectfully) as The
Moron's Advocate.

Adamantius