Harvest To Table
Harvest To Table
Prepare: To keep sorrel fresh, do not wash the leaves until just before eating. Immerse the leaves in water and shake them delicately but do not soak them.
Cook sorrel with the stems removed. To remove the stems, simply fold the leaves in half lengthwise and pull off the stem.
Steam leaves until wilted or cook them in a little butter.
Serve: Sorrel can be served raw or cooked.
Use raw whole French sorrel and shredded garden sorrel in salads. They will have a zesty spinach flavor. Reduce the vinegar or lemon in accompanying dressings to compensate for the acidity of sorrel. Whisk a little honey or sugar into the dressing to counter sorrel’s acidity.
Sorrel is best served in combination with other foods. Add a few shredded leaves to baked and scrambled eggs. Fill an omelet with sorrel cooked in butter with shallots.
Add sorrel to creamy dishes and sauces. To make French sorrel sauce, cook the sorrel in a little butter, add fish or chicken stock and cream and stir until smooth. Stir shredded sorrel into creamy potato or leek soups just before serving. In Eastern Europe, slices of smoked sausage are used in a creamy sorrel soup.
Cook sorrel in the same way as spinach, lightly steamed or boiled. Sorrel stalks can be cooked like rhubarb. Sorrel cooks and reduces in volume quickly. The cooked leaves may turn a drab khaki color.
Sorrel makes a good garnish for fish and veal. Sorrel can be used to tenderize meat: wrap around steaks or add pounded leaves to marinade. Italian salsa verde is made from raw sorrel, watercress, and onion chopped and blended to a creamy emulsion with oil and vinegar; serve with poultry or fish.
Flavor partners: Sorrel has a flavor affinity for butter, soft cheeses, chicken, cucumber, eggs, fish (especially salmon), lamb, leeks, lentils, lettuce, mussels, pork, potato, salmon, scallion, shad, shallots, sour cream, spinach, sweetbreads, tomatoes, and veal.
Sorrel combines well with borage, chervil, chives, dill, lovage, parsley, and tarragon.
Nutrition: Sorrel is rich in potassium and high in vitamins A and C and oxalic acid.
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