All About Poland

Horseradish is another "must be" during Polish Easter.Fresh horseradish is a valuable cosmetic and often used in natural medicine. It contains a lot of vitamins C, folic acid and other microelements and vitamins. Moreover, horseradish is a natural antibiotic, syrup made from it is a great cough cure. It also speeds up metabolism.

You can make compresses from grated horseradish, they will cause tissue congestion and create an intense feeling of heat; however they'll also reduce any pains, improve the mobility of joints, reduce swelling and tensions in muscles.

Horseradish is not rich in iron, instead, it's rich in ascorbic acid, which can increase up to three times the absorption of non-haem iron. It also contains large amounts of folic acid.

Horseradish is also widely used in Polish cuisine. But where do we use it?

It's best to grate the horseradish by hand. You can of course easily buy it at the store, it is a wide range of „CHRZAN” on the shelves; next to mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup.

Ćwikła is a mixture of cooked and grated beets with freshly grated horseradish. Season it with lemon juice, salt and sugar and it will be a great addition to any meat.

Especially during Easter you will find a lot of horseradish - we have horseradish sauce, eggs with horseradish, red borshcht with horseradish, white borshcht with horseradish
And of course, we also add horseradish leaves and roots while we pickle cucumbers (or other veggies).

Ania

When my kids were just kids, during the Advent time we were reading them the wonderful book of Jostein Gaarder - "The Christmas Mystery". 24 stories, secret advent calendar, travelling through time and space. And everything started in a mall in Oslo with a small sheep....