Horseradish and Beetroot Gravy

Beetroot and horseradish is a pairing from eastern Europe and it makes complete sense next to roast beef. The beetroot brings earthy sweetness and a deep red brown colour, the horseradish brings a heat that goes up your nose rather than sitting on your tongue. Serve with roast beef, brisket, salt beef or a good beef sausage.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for six plates

• 25g (1oz) butter or beef dripping
• 1 onion chopped fine
• 1 medium (about 120g) cooked beetroot the plain vacuum packed sort, not pickled, coarsely grated
• 1½ tbsp plain flour
• 600ml (1 pint) hot beef stock
• 2 tbsp hot horseradish sauce or 1 tbsp of freshly grated horseradish
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp caraway seeds optional, lightly crushed
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Coarse grater
• Balloon whisk
• Sieve

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Cook the onion for seven minutes until soft, then add the caraway if you are using it and cook for thirty seconds until it smells fragrant.

2. Add the grated beetroot and cook for three minutes, stirring. The pan will turn a startling magenta, which calms down to a proper gravy colour once the stock goes in.

3. Sprinkle in the flour and cook for a minute, working it through the beetroot and onion until nothing looks dusty.

4. Add a third of the hot stock and whisk hard until smooth, then the rest in two goes. Bring it to a simmer.

5. Simmer gently for twelve minutes, stirring occasionally, so the beetroot gives up its colour and sweetness and the raw earthy edge cooks off.

6. Push the gravy through a sieve into a clean pan if you want it smooth, pressing the beetroot well. Leave it unsieved for a thicker, rougher gravy with texture in it.

7. Take the pan off the heat and let it stop bubbling. Stir in the horseradish and the vinegar. Horseradish loses its heat within a couple of minutes of boiling, so it has to go in at the end.

8. Season and taste. It should be earthy and sweet with the horseradish arriving afterwards as a warmth in the nose. If the heat has faded by the time you serve, stir in another teaspoon.

Tips worth knowing

• Two tablespoons of jarred horseradish sauce in 600ml gives a noticeable but comfortable heat. Fresh grated horseradish is far stronger, so one tablespoon is plenty and half is a reasonable starting point.
• Add the horseradish off the heat, every time. Its heat comes from a volatile compound that boils away in about two minutes, and a boiled horseradish gravy just tastes vaguely of turnip.
• Use plain cooked beetroot, not the pickled kind in vinegar. Pickled beetroot will make the gravy sour and you will not be able to control the acidity.
• It will stain a wooden spoon and your fingers. Grate the beetroot on a plate and rinse everything straight away.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for three months, but the horseradish heat fades badly on both. Freeze the beetroot gravy on its own and stir fresh horseradish in after reheating.

Questions people ask