I have a terrible habit of shortening the names of almost anything and everything I come across: the sleek and chic St Regis Hotel gets reduced to the ‘St Reej’, ‘Jakarts’ is Jakarta, ‘sash’ equals sashimi and so the list goes on. It will be no surprise to anyone who knows me then that the thing I eat with beef is not horseradish but ‘horse rad’.

And horse rad is something I am rather good at making (actually, there are only two ingredients…perhaps ‘putting together’ would be a more accurate description).  Or it is if I can find fresh horseradish root which, after four years of half-hearted hunting, I am pleased to say I finally have.

Culina stock it in their fridge section at the back (it looks rather like an extremely phallic version of a parsnip, see main picture at the top of the page) and you can expect to pay around $15. But as it tastes so much better than the jarred version, it really is money well spent.*

All you have to do to achieve culinary excellence is finely grate it, (preferably using one of those microplane graters) add some fresh cream to loosen, (the longlife whipping cream from Cold Storage is the right consistency; the Bulla cream is too thick) followed by salt and pepper…and…hey presto.  You’re all set.

Now you just need to worry about cooking the beef, carrots, potatoes and whatever else.

*If you bought your beef from Culina too – beautiful as it looks above – let’s just say that $15 for horseradish root will be the least of your worries. The cost of this four rib chunk was a staggering $700. Needless to say I did not buy it! (UK readers, that’s a whopping £350!)