Horseradish Almond Sauce

Great sauce to serve with cooked beef, poultry or cooked ham.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons finely grated horseradish
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 oz. (30 g) chopped blanched almonds
2 cups milk
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream
salt and pepper to taste


Preparation:

  • Melt butter and flour and fry for 1 to 2 minutes (do not brown). 
  • Add milk gradually and stir all the time. 
  • Add sugar, chopped blanched almonds, salt and pepper and cook for 12 to 15 minutes over very low heat or better in double boiler. 
  • Remove from heat and add grated horseradish. 
  • In a small bowl mix egg yolk and cream and add carefully into hot sauce before serving.


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Almond
The almond is the fruit of Prunus dulcis Prunus amygdalus, or Amygdalus communis), belonging to the Prunoideae subfamily of the family Rosaceae.

The tree appears to be a native of western Asia, Barbary, and Morocco; but it has been extensively distributed over the warm temperate regions of the Old World.

It is a tree of moderate size; the leaves are lanceolate, and serrated at the edges; and it flowers early in spring. The fruit is a drupe, having a downy outer coat, called the epicarp, which encloses the reticulated hard stony shell, or "endocarp." The seed is the kernel which is contained within these coverings.

There are two forms of the plant, the one (with pink flowers) producing sweet almonds, and the other (with white flowers) producing bitter almonds. The kernel of the former contains a fixed oil and emulsion. As late as the early 20th century it was used internally in medicine, with the stipulation that it must not be adulterated with the bitter almond; it remains fairly popular in alternative medicine but has fallen out of prescription among doctors.

The bitter almond is rather broader and shorter than the sweet almond, and contains about 50% of the fixed oil which also occurs in sweet almonds. It also contains a ferment emulsion which, in the presence of water, acts on a soluble glucoside, amygdalin, yielding glucose, cyanide and the essential oil of bitter almonds or benzaldehyde. Bitter almonds may yield from 6 to 8% of prussic acid (also known as hydrogen cyanide). Extract of bitter almond was once used medicinally but even in small doses is severe and in larger doses can be deadly; the prussic acid must be removed before consumption.