Sorrel
About Sorrel:
Sorrel is very popular in French cooking. Sorrel has a lightly tart flavor from a combination of acids found in other tart foods including spinach, green apples and citrus fruit. Native to Europe, sorrel is used both as a vegetable and as an aromatic herb.
Tips:
Lay down a bed of sorrel in the bottom of a steamer when steaming fish to impart a mildly tangy flavor.
Combine with spinach or Swiss chard as a vegetable - steam just until tender and finish with a dab of butter, salt and pepper.
Coarsely chop the leaves from a sprig of sorrel and saute, briefly in butter. Put this in an omelet before folding or pour over a piece of baked fish. Use as a bed for boneless poultry. Stir into vegetarian dishes.
Sorrel goes well with vegetable purees - peel and dice two pounds parsnips and simmer in water as potatoes. When tender, drain and mash. Meanwhile, chop the leaves from a sprig of sorrel and simmer in two cups cream or milk for five minutes. Stir the sorrel mixture into the parsnips, add salt and pepper and serve. Potatoes, carrots, sunchokes, turnips or any other dense vegetable may be added or substituted.
The flavor of sorrel balances the fat content of many foods like eel, cream soups, sauces and rich egg dishes - chop sorrel leaves and add to any cream-vegetable soup - a tablespoon per portion.
Sprinkle chopped sorrel over avocado slices for a tangy garnish.
Finely chop a tablespoon each of sorrel leaves, parsley, garlic chives and basil and whisk into a stick of softened butter to use with garlic breads and grilled slices of French or Italian bread.
Stir a tablespoon or two of chopped sorrel into dishes like creamed corn and creamed onions to ad a bit of sparkle.