Beet and Horseradish Relish

When Larry and I had only been married a few years, we rented a house from the parents of some friends of ours. Once, when I stopped by to pay the rent, our landlord was making this relish from fresh beets from her garden. The whole house was filled with an incredibly interesting aroma and the counter was lined with jars filled with something the color of garnets. She was happy to give me a jar, but told me to wait at least a week to open it, because it needed time to pickle. When we finally got to taste it, we were hooked – this stuff was amazing! It had a sweet and tangy flavor with a nice sharp edge from the horseradish.

The following year, I made some myself, but in tumult of moving a couple times over the next few years, I lost the recipe. Our old landlords had moved away, so I thought I would never be able to get the recipe again. Then one day I ran into Mrs. Landlord’s sister in the grocery store in our little town, and thought to ask her if she might have the recipe for the relish. She not only had it, but wrote it down from memory right there in the store. I was thrilled to have it again!

I have changed the proportions slightly over the years – my version is a little less sweet, and a fair bit more spicy. I also don’t can mine, so it only keeps a month or two in the fridge. I am not going to give the instructions for canning here, because I am not an expert at that and it is easy to mess it up and end up with something that is not so good to eat. The recipe just says “Process”, a rather gauzy instruction for me to pass along.

First, you need to blanch and peel the beets. We need 3 cups, which will require about 4 medium sized ones. Scrub the outside – if there are leaves still attached, trim those off, leaving an inch or so of the stem. Put them in a pot large enough so that they can be covered with water. Bring it to a boil and simmer them for about 20 minutes. You can test to see if the skins are lose enough to slip by scraping lightly across the skin with a butter knife – if the skin comes up easily, they are ready. If not, let them go a few more minutes. Carefully dump them into the sink and let the hot water drain away. Fill the sink with cold water and let the beets sit in there until they are cool enough to handle. This next part is a little messy – you can wear rubber gloves if you want to try and keep your hands from getting stained. I don’t usually bother – you only look like you have been performing bare handed heart surgery for a couple days, so gloves aren’t worth the bother to me. If you have to give a major presentation at work the next day, you might want to grab the gloves. You just kind of gently squeeze each beet and the skins will “slip”. You may have to trim any little blemishes with a sharp paring knife, but for the most part, the skins will come right off. Rinse them and allow them to sit a few minutes to drain the excess water off of them.

Using a box grater, grate them coarsely. Measure 3 cups and place in a 5 quart stock potUse a food processor to grind up
1 cup green cabbage
1 cup sweet onion
And add them to the beetsNext come the brine ingredients:
1 & 1/3 cups cider vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup prepared horseradish [1/3 cup if you want it less spicy]
1 tablespoon kosher salt
about 20 or 30 grinds fresh black pepperStir all ingredients together in the stock pot, bring up to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 30 minutes.You actually can eat it right away if you like, but the flavors really blend and mellow out after sitting in the fridge for a week or two. You can use it like any relish, on burgers or hot dogs, but it is really best with grilled meat with pork chops or a nice sirloin steak. You can mix it into mayonnaise [pink!] and have it on roast beef sandwiches. Or just grab a spoon – it is great all by itself. So long as it is kept cold, it will stay good for a month. Longer than that actually, but I will leave that up to your discretion.  Enjoy!