HORSERADISH – GREEN PEPPERCORN SAUCE
Posted on | February 28, 2010 | No Comments
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This is incredibly easy. It’s incredibly simple. It’s an incredibly good accompaniment to just about any protein. If there’s a catch, no one’s discovered it yet.
It is infinitely variable, allowing scope for whimsical improvisation. Vary it by taking out the mayonnaise and using all sour cream, or vice versa. Or, replacing the mayonnaise with whipped cream. Or, using all whipped cream. Or, you could leave out any one of the three flavor components – green pepper corns, mustard and horseradish – and just go with two. Or, even just one. Or, using different mustards. Or, pink peppercorns. Or, adding hot pepper. Or adding hot sauce – Sriracha, Habanero, Chipotle, you name it. Or exchanging the parsley for herbes de Provence for chicken, or tarragon for fish. Or, …
You get the idea.
Note: The sauce feels like something you can throw together while the meat is resting. And, indeed you can. But the doing the “do-ahead” aspects ahead really does make things better.
HORSERADISH – GREEN PEPPERCORN SAUCE
Quantity: More Than Enough for 2 – the recipe is easily multiplied
Difficulty: Not very
Time: Seconds only, but best if you can give it an hour for the flavors to coalesce
Ingredients:
• 1 tbs green peppercorns, or to taste
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbs sour cream
• 1 tbs Dijon, or 1 or 2 tsp hot mustard, or to taste
• 1 or 2 tsp fresh, grated horseradish, or to taste
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tsp minced parsley (omit for beef and lamb)
Shopping Note: Green peppercorns are sold two ways – dry or in a liquid brine. Brined pepper will help you make this recipe more quickly and easily, but most stores don’t give you the choice. Don’t make yourself nuts shopping around for peppercorns packed in brine, as will be explained, you can brine the dried ones yourself.
Brine (if necessary):
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tsp (optional) distilled vinegar
• 2 tsp table salt
Technique:
Note: There are some “do ahead” aspects to this sauce which can
If you’re using dry green peppercorns (see, I told you), measure 3/4 cup hot tap water into a measuring cup, and mix in the vinegar and salt. Place the peppercorns in a small bowl, and cover them with the brine. Soak long enough to soften the peppercorns. 1 hour is more than enough.
Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients – excepting the herbs – in a small bowl. If using horseradish (you should, you should!), you’ll want to give the sauce a few minutes for the horseradish and salt to marry with the other ingredients. So, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Taste the sauce, and adjust for horseradish by either adding more or by adding more mayonnaise. Drain the green peppers, and mix them in. If using, mix in the herbs. Taste again. You don’t want this salty, but if necessary, adjust for salt.
The HORSERADISH – GREEN PEPPERCORN SAUCE by Cook Food Good, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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WHO IS BDL, Boar D. Laze, or whatever the hell his name is?
A Brief Biography:
Ex-Navy Seal; Ex-Victoria’s Secret model; Turned down a three-way with Sophia Loren and the young Marlene Dietrich (as in the Blue Angel) because had other plans; Knows who killed everyone in The Big Sleep, and why; Chaired the work-group which invented Time, Space, Gravity, Fire and Holiday Sweaters; Prefers Dickel to Jack.
What is Cook Food Good?
What’s this site about? It’s about a lot of thingsForcing myself to work out issues relating to writing a cookbook: COOK FOOD GOOD: American Cooking and Technique for Beginners and Intermediates.
Getting feedback on my work from you.
Discussions on basic and not-so-basic techniques. The recipes here are very technique driven. Similarly, the idea behind the book is to be far more about the how than the what – with the goal of teaching you to create your own recipes and tweak other people’s, confidently and successfully.
How to cook better, as it relates to you (and me too). That is, taking a beginner or advanced beginner to good, restaurant quality. Mostly this will be (more or less) French technique and (more or less) American food. But only mostly, more or less.
Recipes for this, that and the other.
Knives and all about sharpening them (which have somehow become a subject on which I frequently get asked for advice): How to choose and how to use.
The first Cook Food Good Blog was hosted by the website, Chef Talk. However, CT, removed its blog section. If you’re interested in bad writing, poor punctuation and ancient history, you’ll find the old CT posts archived here. One thing about posting on CT, was that it acted as a sort of language and attitude super-ego. Don’t count on it here. This is naked id.
