Sorrel: So much to use..

[maggiethecat]

About fifteen years ago, at the very beginning of my garden consciousness, I planted some sorrel. Man, this plant loves it here. When it gets big, rusty and ugly in midsummer, I simply cut it back to the ground and voila! I have a lovely patch of fresh small green leaves come fall.

It's a classic ingredient, but seems to be used mainly in a soup, or with other veg.

Does anyone have a favorite way to cook sorrel? I hate to throw those leaves on the compost heap for the winter!

(edited to fix ancient typo.)

[Jinmyo]

I've wrapped tofu in fresh sorrel leaves with a bit of ginger and a shoyu wasabi dip. Also lamb with a mint dip.

I've also used them when steaming fish.

[bavila]

Well, the singular reply to MTC's original post leaves me somewhat discouraged. But it has been 3.5 years , so....

I have a big bag of lemon sorrel in my CSA box this week. Any suggestions? I tasted a bit of fresh leaf, and the lemon taste is pretty powerful.

[Jensen]

I've used sorrel mixed with ricotta as a filling for ravioli. With lemon-y sorrel, I'd be tempted to use goat cheese instead.

[lemon curd]

While not cooking per se... I had sorrel for the first time last week and was pleasantly impressed with its unique flavour. I simply chopped it up and added it to a salad and used some of it in the salad dressing. I also used some in a vegetable gratin.

Edited April 23, 2006 by lemon curd (log)

[Smithy]

I'm envious that y'all are talking about sorrel already. The snow is just now gone from my flower bed. I am seeing chives, at least, so there's hope. I hadn't thought of cutting the whole thing down in the summer; I'm so terrified I'll lose it all. Maybe I'll try that this year.

I generally use sorrel in sauces to go over things like pecan-crusted salmon, or sauteed chicken. The salmon recipe isn't mine but it's a fine treatment, both of salmon and sorrel, with the one drawback that the sorrel turns that dreadful army drab color. One could probably garnish with something brighter green to make it look better. The flavor is terrific. I'll look around and see if I can find that recipe link.

As I remember my chicken goes something like this: brown chicken pieces in a pan with oil and garlic; remove the chicken briefly; deglaze the pan with a neutral white wine; add cream and chopped sorrel; return the chicken to the pan, cover and cook until done (turning periodically); at the last, uncover the pan to reduce the sauce until it's the consistency you want. Add seasonings as you like. I'm always throwing nuts into things like this. The chicken should be well coated with the sauce, but there should also be extra sauce for the serving. Serve with (in our house, that means "over") rice. I did learn last summer that if you're using big leaves you really need to devein them for this recipe. I chopped whole leaves and ended up with little tight spiky tubes where the veins had curled in on themselves during the sauce cooking portion.

Bits of sorrel chopped into a salad are great. Somewhere on this forum, Andiesenji posted a sorrel soup recipe.

Sorrel and fish, sorrel and chicken, sorrel and eggs are all good combinations. Sorrel and cream are downright synergistic.

Hmm. So far I haven't found the pecan-crusted salmon with sorrel sauce recipe, but here's another fine-sounding recipe: Smoked Salmon Benedict with Sorrel Sauce. Bless Lynne Rosetto Kaspar, she's the one who turned me onto sorrel in the first place.

[jackal10]

Look up under "Schav"

Makes a wonderful cold borscht, or cream soup with oatmeal

Otherwise use like spinach. Souffle or with eggs is good

[Smithy]

It works well in a panade, too. You don't have to do anything except tear our the biggest veins if the leaves are big, and the army drab color isn't an issue.

[andiesenji]

Carrots and sorrel have a great affinity for each other and enhance the flavors of each.

1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots, loosley packed.

1 1/2 cups shredded sorrel, see below.

3/4 cup bread crumbs, toasted in butter and seasoned with a little salt, pepper, thyme and a tiny pinch of nutmeg.

1/2 cup of freshly grated or very finely shredded Parmesan, Asiago or Romano cheese.

Shred carrots finely and gently steam them or sauté them briefly.

Quickly blanch sorrel (to shred, stack several leaves, roll and cut them "chiffonade").

Toss together the carrots, sorrel, bread crumbs and HALF of the cheese.

Place in a gratin or shallow baking dish, sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.

Place in a 300 degree (F) oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Serves two, this is very good with spring lamb, pork medallions, or whatever your fancy.

[andiesenji]

As mentioned above, the larger sorrel leaves make a great wrap, particularly for somewhat fatty meats and meat mixtures.

I use the large leaves, removing the tougher stems and veins and overlapping two leaves, for dolmas, etc.

You can also arrange the blanched leaves into a long rectangle, overlapping them well, on a sheet of plastic wrap.

down the center of the leaves, leaving an inch clear on each side, spread egg salad, a meat or cheese cracker spread, or similar filling.

Using the plastic wrap to lift the edge nearest you, roll the construction as tightly as you can, wrap well with the plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours.

Cut crosswise and serve with crackers, croutons or "cocktail" rye.

[maggiethecat]

Just yesterday I was checking out my rampaging sorrel ans regretting that I still was clueless. bavila, thanks for bumping the thread,and all, thanks for your ideas. Keep 'em coming.

[JAZ]

Elizabeth Schneider, in Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, has a recipe for a dressing for vegetables, fish or chicken made from blanched sorrel blended together with an avocado, buttermilk and scallions. Other than that, she has several ideas for salads and soups, including a potato and wild sorrel soup.

She also mentions a recipe from Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook that uses a sorrel cream sauce in a smoked salmon version of eggs benedict -- it sounds really great.

[Smithy]

She also mentions a recipe from Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook that uses a sorrel cream sauce in a smoked salmon version of eggs benedict -- it sounds really great.

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That's the recipe I referred to up here in my earlier post. My link goes to The Splendid Table's recipe files, which carry Lynne's "adaptation" (I don't know that that means) of Jerry's recipe.

I'm glad this got bumped up, too. I hadn't seen it the first time around. Rampaging sorrel, eh? I'm just pleased to have something that will overwinter without having to be brought inside.

[Ktepi]

I've made a caldo verde variant with sorrel instead of kale -- it's only a "variant" in the sense that it has the other ingredients in common, the switch to sorrel makes for a much different soup. But I liked the way it paired with the chorizo, and if I could find sorrel, I'd make it again.

[Behemoth]

Apart from what was mentioned above, I love creamed sorrel under eggs en cocotte.

Another good trick I learned from a Patricia Wells book -- to first puree the sorrel with butter in a food processor and add the resulting paste to the rest of the soup at the end. It keeps its bright green color without having to mix in extra spinach. The green color lasted at least through the next day and a gentle reheating. Very tasty.

[bleudauvergne]

I made an Asparagus and Sorrel soup not long ago, match made in heaven. I have been picking sorrel up for my market basket in these last couple of weeks. Sorrel's fresh lemony taste is a natural for fish of all kinds, and today I cut some into ribbons for the herb salad at lunch.

[fryguy]

There's a sorrel and chanterelle risotto on Craft's menu.

[Smithy]

A sorrel risotto, eh? What a timely suggestion that is: even as we type, there's a risotto cookoff under way.

I'm so glad that sometime I have the good sense to print out a recipe and save it someplace where I can find it again. The recipe for Pecan-Crusted Salmon with Sorrel Sauce is on Epicurious' web site. The recipe was originally printed in Bon Appetit. Cook's note: An immersion blender is a wonderful tool for this sauce.

[bavila]

Wow. Thanks for all the great ideas. Not sure what I'll do with it yet, though I'm leaning toward the carrot dish as I'll be stuffing and grilling pork tenderloin this week. Or maybe the egg salad "log". My daughter and I eat egg salad for lunch often. This would be a novelty and a way to sneak some greens into her diet!

My impression was definitely that it could be used similarly to spinach, but the note that accompanied the CSA box listed as an herb rather than a green for salad or cooking. All a matter of semantics, I suppose...

[Chris Amirault]

I had a great Jamaican sorrel and hibiscus punch in Brooklyn once, but I've never been able to find a recipe. Anyone?

[jayt90]

I had a great Jamaican sorrel and hibiscus punch in Brooklyn once, but I've never been able to find a recipe. Anyone?

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I think Jamaican sorrel is a totally different plant. The sorrel I grow does not do well in mid-summer, and attracts more bugs than in spring or fall.

Maybe the punch was made with shav grass, which is sometimes called sorrel. It appears in some flavoured vodkas, from eastern Europe.

[jayt90]

My impression was definitely that it could be used similarly to spinach, but the note that accompanied the CSA box listed as an herb rather than a green for salad or cooking.  All a matter of semantics, I suppose...

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When I have a lot of sorrel I use it in spinach and chard recipes. The taste is sharper, but most people like it better.

[Chris Amirault]

I had a great Jamaican sorrel and hibiscus punch in Brooklyn once, but I've never been able to find a recipe. Anyone?

←

I think Jamaican sorrel is a totally different plant. The sorrel I grow does not do well in mid-summer, and attracts more bugs than in spring or fall.

Maybe the punch was made with shav grass, which is sometimes called sorrel. It appears in some flavoured vodkas, from eastern Europe.

←

Hmmm.... The sorrel I've grown has definitely had the same flavor as the sorrel punch I had....

[bavila]

Chris -- a quick glance at Google makes it seem as though hibiscus tea is also called sorrel tea or Jamaican sorrel tea.

So I made the carrot dish. The sorrel lost color immediately on blanching ! Bugger. Should I have blanched the carrots and sauteed the sorrel?

[Susan in FL]

Perfect timing to revive this topic! Mine grew year-round and like Maggie said, it got big and ugly. Just this morning I cut it back, even though I had no idea if it would grow again. I'm looking forward to the fresh new leaves, and now have these ideas for how to use it.