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| Chrain d'Rick |
Last week, I met Joy and Matt, a great and shining young couple who are engaged to be married. I met them at their engagement dinner, thrown by my friend Rick. I had no business being at their party because I wasn't invited and I'd never met them. I was there was because I volunteered to make desert for this huge dinner and although I wanted to just deliver it and go, Rick made room for me by sharing his seat with me and I got to taste the best thing I ever tasted: Rick's chrain.
I'd just learned some great news about a biopsy I'd had, and I was in the mood to do a pastry dance. My lucky news was transformed into a croque en bouche, a conical tower of pâte a choux pastry, filled with pastry cream, glued together with caramel, sprinkled with candied almonds. It was (mostly) a joyous project (working with caramel can be a bitch). So, the croque en bouche transmuted my lucky news into dessert for 40 people and the opportunity to meet lovely people. And I got to eat Rick's chrain.
Here's the croque en bouche:
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| Croque en bouche for Joy and Matt |
I made Rick's recipe with some miso paste and a very small amount of olive oil because I'm trying to keep my fat intake on the lower side and I think that miso could be a good thing to use as a binding agent in place of, say, cream cheese, mayonnaise or oil. But, do use olive oil and as he indicates, tofu spread (I guess he means 'tofutti', that fake cream cheese - he made this for vegan people. But miso is vegan, isn't it?). His was good enough to spread on anything ... salmon, trout, grilled shrimp, or use it to help bind your tuna, or egg TVP salad.
The miso paste made it a little sweet.
If you want to make it pink, add some beets and serve it with a nice piece of gefilte fish.
Rick is a natural and talented chef with a honed and sophisticated palate. He's a no-nonsense person whose cooking reflects his warm nature and hamisch personality. He's no newcomer as a guest blogger to BHK. Click on this link for Rick's Molly Kugel . It isn't Passover without this great matzo-apple kugel.
And from now on, it won't be kamut puff fish night without Rick's Chrain.
Step 1-Get a shillelagh of horseradish.
Me, I found mine at Eataly.
Step 2-Grate that root
It's filthy, wash it, peel with a vegetable peeler (easier than it looks) and cut it into 1" cubes.
Put it in a food processor with some white wine vinegar and salt. Process. After a little bit, add some cheap-o olive oil, it moderates the heat.
Step 3-Make the sauce
Take about half of what you had and put it in a jar in the fridge, covered with oil. It'll live to fight another day.
Leave the remainder in the food processor, add about equal amounts of some sort of soft tofu (I used tofu spread, that's all they had in the store), add a little more salt, hit it for a couple of seconds and you're done!
Easy as croque en bouche!
Me, I found mine at Eataly.
Step 2-Grate that root
It's filthy, wash it, peel with a vegetable peeler (easier than it looks) and cut it into 1" cubes.
Put it in a food processor with some white wine vinegar and salt. Process. After a little bit, add some cheap-o olive oil, it moderates the heat.
Step 3-Make the sauce
Take about half of what you had and put it in a jar in the fridge, covered with oil. It'll live to fight another day.
Leave the remainder in the food processor, add about equal amounts of some sort of soft tofu (I used tofu spread, that's all they had in the store), add a little more salt, hit it for a couple of seconds and you're done!
Easy as croque en bouche!
-Rick Bernstein
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