Food & Drink

Swe-Dishes: Horseradish Ice Cream With Steamed Beetroot

Adventurous foodies, this one’s for you.

Horseradish is a popular ingredient in Sweden, but horseradish ice cream? Not so much. John Duxbury of swedishfood.com transformed some classic Swedish flavors to create an interesting, frosty take on the spicy veggie.

Ingredients

• ½ cup water
• ½ cup caster (superfine) sugar
• 4½ tbsp liquid glucose (glucose syrup)
• ¾ oz freshly grated horseradish*
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 5 fl oz heavy cream
• 5 fl oz plain yogurt
• 1¼ cups crème fraîche
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• Pinch of mustard powder
• Pinch white pepper or cayenne pepper

* If you can’t find fresh horseradish, use ready-made hot horseradish sauce instead and omit the hot water, vinegar and cream.

Garnishes

• Beetroot, goat’s cheese and walnuts (per serving)
• 1½ oz. goat’s cheese, roughly crumbled
• 1-2 thinly sliced, cooked baby beetroots
• 1 tbsp walnut pieces
• Roughly chopped beetroot leaves, optional
• Salt and pepper to taste

Duxbury’s Tips

• Liquid glucose (sometimes called glucose syrup) is widely available, although if you can’t find it, you could substitute corn syrup, but not glycerin, which is entirely different.
• Choose small beetroots and lightly steam them. I prefer different colors, but that is only for an interesting visual appearance.

Instructions

1. Heat the water, sugar and glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Leave to cool, preferably overnight in a fridge.

2. Mix the grated horseradish, hot water and vinegar. Leave to cool, preferably overnight in a fridge.

3. Lightly whisk all the ingredients together and then churn in an ice cream machine. Keep in a freezer until required.

4. Crumble the goat’s cheese in a circle on each plate, leaving a space to add a scoop of horseradish ice cream.

5. Add thin slices of cooked beetroot round the edge of each plate. Garnish with chopped beetroot leaves and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Horseradish ice cream and steamed beetroot pairs well with cured or smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, beef or venison carpaccio and some nice, crusty bread.

Makes about 4 cups.

John Duxbury enjoys cooking Swedish food and went to the trouble of learning Swedish so he could read Swedish cookbooks. The love affair with Swedish food started as a result of numerous visits to Sweden when he was working with Swedish students. When he retired from teaching he decided to set up http://www.swedishfood.com so other people with an interest in Swedish cooking could benefit from his work.