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Suggestions to solve a sorrel situation


Pierogi

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I got a beautiful, lush bunch of French sorrel from my CSA today. It's about 10 ounces worth of very green, very interesting-tasting herbage. I've never even tasted French sorrel before, let alone cooked with it.

The resident farmer had no real suggestions on its use, save "well a lot of people mix it in with other salad greens". Problem is, with all the lovely, ripe produce right now, and my continuing glut of tomatoes, I'm not doing a lot of green salads at the moment.

I did a quick Google when I got home, and found, yes, lots of salads and a few soups. Which I had also immediately thought about. There was also a couple of suggestions for a pesto type preparation.

So, what say my fellow eGers, who certainly have the most collective brillance in cooking of any one spot, "virtual" or not? I'm toying with the idea of a chilled soup, like a chilled cream of watercress (a bunch of which I also got in this share) or a vichyssoise.

Whatcha got for me? Thanks in advance.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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I planted sorrel in my garden this year and now that it's coming in, I've been asking myself the same thing. I know I want to try some sauce recipes, which go well with fish. Usually that involves heavy cream but in Plenty, Yotam Ottolenghi uses greek yogurt, which sounds good too.

Other ideas I want to try:

- with eggs, such as a frittata, omlette, or a bed for scrambled eggs

- with potatoes, either chopped into a potato salad or wilted inro a gratin (thanks, Paula Wolfert for that one)

- surprisingly both Diana Kennedy, The Art of Mexican Cooking, and Andrea Nguyen, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen both have recipes with sorrel


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I've been thinking about this too, since my sorrel bush is flourishing this year.

Salmon with sorrel sauce works for a grilled or pan-fried salmon. Somewhere I have a recipe for salmon that's been coated with crushed pecans and something else, and a sorrel sauce as an accent. Another of my favorites is a panade from the Zuni Cafe cookbook, where fresh sorrel is mixed into the bread, cooked onion, cheese and broth mixture. If either of those sounds interesting, ask and I'll summarize the recipes.

While I was looking for the salmon with sorrel sauce recipe, I stumbled over this untried but interesting-looking recipe at the Splendid Table's web site: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/splendid-table/recipes/fish_salmonbenedict.html

One caution: make very sure you devein the big leaves! I ignored that cookbook advice and found my food riddled with sharp little spears from the larger veins. The smallest "capillaries" aren't an issue, but the central veins and (as I recall) some of the larger side veins are.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Trouble with sorrel is it turns an unappetizing green color when heated. I think D. Madison has a recipe for potato and sorrel soup where she has you cook the soup without the sorrel and then blend the sorrel into the soup just before serving. This keeps the color and flavor fresh.

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Trouble with sorrel is it turns an unappetizing green color when heated. I think D. Madison has a recipe for potato and sorrel soup where she has you cook the soup without the sorrel and then blend the sorrel into the soup just before serving. This keeps the color and flavor fresh.

Very true. Another option is to compromise: cook most of the sorrel but reserve some to chop and add at the last moment, or as garnish.

Sorrel and chicken are also complementary.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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I grow a lot of sorrel and I like to combine it with vegetables in soups. Carrot, sorrel soup, optionally with ginger, is what I consider a "classic" as the lemony flavor of the sorrel perks up the sweetness of the carrots.

I think I posted a recipe for my carrot soup on the old RecipeGullet but I can't find it.

Ah ha! I just found it via Google. Here it is. You can use more sorrel.

Another soup that works brilliantly with sorrel is green borscht served hot with sour cream.

Combining sorrel with other greens, quickly saute them and toss with caramelized onions and walnuts and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

I use the big sorrel leaves to wrap teaspoonsful of cooked rice and meat mixtures, similar to dolmas, then steam them for 8-10 minutes.

I have a "greens" cookbook that has a lot of recipes that include sorrel. A google search produces hundreds.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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My mom found a sorrel soup somewhere that has you puree the sorrel with some butter in the cuisinart, then add the sorrel butter to the soup. The layer of fat prevents oxidation and the soup stays green tastes good, too.

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